


The Infamous Potato Research Story

by ShadowBlazer



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, F/F, Horror, Humor, Potatoes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-02-15 20:46:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13039077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowBlazer/pseuds/ShadowBlazer
Summary: Severa wonders why she became a potato researcher at a haunted facility when Lucina invites her back to her room at said facility to discuss "research."





	1. Potato

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Halifax](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Halifax/gifts).



> I have been seriously contemplating writing a full story for this one-off in my collections of story. I'm legit doing it like I'm legit doing potato research.

At work, Severa stares through a glass window at high-tech machinery disinfecting a wooden potato crate for bacterial ring rot, and wonders where she went wrong with her life choices.

Probably when she graduated at the top of her class in potato research, and very likely when she applied for a competitive, highly acclaimed position at the industry giant Exalt Corp.'s top secret facility. Most definitely when, in her undergrad, she opened a journal of revolutionary potato research results, only to find a picture of the daughter of Exalt Corp's CEO, and decided that she was going to change her major on the spot just to meet her.

Yeah, that was definitely it. Not that there aren't other benefits that called her like a siren to a sailor.

The salary her employers are paying her is ludicrous. Severa is quickly racking up towards six figures in her bank account, which would be amazing if there was ANYTHING to spend her money in this desolate wasteland called Regna Ferox. Oh, she's tried to order online, but the shipping costs were exorbitant and the couriers often took six weeks on average to deliver her package to her. Mostly because they got lost trying to find the hidden potato research facility.

Her roommate, Noire, nods and shrugs helplessly when she vents. “But think of it, Severa. When your contract ends, you'll have enough to buy anything you want.”

“It's a three year contract,” Severa groans, covering her eyes, “and it's only been six months.”

“Well, why did you apply here in the first place if you were going to be so unhappy?”

Reason #1 likes to eat her lunch by herself, working long hours in the lab, and testing a variety of tubers in heat tests, water tests, structure tests, and so forth. Severa has managed to mangle a handful of conversations as they pass each other in the hallway when Lucina has a moment to breathe between her meetings and her projects. Lucina is cordial, friendly, and a complete distraction when she walks into Severa's lab to observe her methodology one day.

Severa has been swabbing the wooden panels she had sent through the disinfecting machine when Exalt Corp.'s lead scientist enters through the white doors of her lab. Severa curses and nearly drops a swabbed sample before catching it and placing it in a vial containing three millimetres of Ringers solution.

Lucina casts curious glances around the lab before striding over to Severa, her eyes scanning everything on the work bench. “What are you studying right now?”

Severa grunts, finishing the last of her swabs. “Clavibacter michiganensis subspecies sepedonicus.”

Lucina blinks. “Oh, ring rot bacterium.” She leans forward, a strand of hair escaping from her pony tail. “May I take a look?” she asks as her shoulder brushes Severa's, and Severa struggles to nod like a person and not a muppet.

A scientist should not be so hot. Where is Naga's mercy?

“Interesting. Only three millimetres of solution.”

Severa grumbles, “There's also some samples with one millimetre of solution to suspend them. I still need to plate them in duplicates on agar medium YGM and incubate them for 1-2 weeks at 20–23 °C to form colonies of the bacterium.”

Lucina gazes at her. “Fascinating.” Her eyes flick down to Severa's mouth before coming back up to her eyes. “Would you care to discuss your research with me in further detail later?”

Ah, crap. “Is this an evaluation?”

“No! No.” Lucina tucks the stray hair behind her ear and glances down, taking a long breath. “More of a matter of personal interest. My quarters would be an adequate location for this discussion. Would you be able to meet me there at 8 o'clock tonight?”

Severa thinks she said yes. She likes to hope that she said words. Most likely, she nodded like an idiot while Lucina smiles at her, because, dear Naga, what is happening?

“Excellent. I'll see you then,” Lucina glances at her mouth again and bites her lower lip, “Severa.”

Lucina turns and sweeps out of the lab while Severa gapes like a yokel at her exit. She later bombards her research assistant Brady with something that vaguely sounds like words when he comes in thirty minutes after Lucina leaves.

“Severa, breathe. Basic sentence structure is noun, verb, object. Now try that.” Brady yelps when she smacks his arm. “Hey! That's workplace harassment! I need to talk to the HR Coordinator about my feelings regarding this.”

“Oh, please.” Severa rolls her eyes. “You're just hoping to get into her pants.”

“Hey! I ain't Inigo. I like to court a lady real gentleman-like first.” Brady sits down and glances at a petri dish of their sample. “Unlike Lucina, who clearly wants to have ya in her bed.”

Severa hurls the book she was reading at him. “Ugh! We're just going to chat! About research!”

Brady stares at her. “In her room. Read between the lines, Severa. I know ya ain't that dense.”

Severa continues to freak out about the invitation with Noire, who watches her throw shirts and dresses from her stifling closet. “I have nothing to wear.”

Noire hesitates. “To be honest, if she did ask you out, I don't think you not wearing anything would bother Lucina.”

“Geez, you too?” Severa spins around, holding a loose, billowy shirt with a low-cut front to her chest. “This makes me look blotchy, doesn't it?”

“Not really.” Noire shrugs. “It looks nice?”

“Tell me what you really think.”

“It looks like something Lucina might enjoy taking off.”

Severa ignores Noire's commentary for the rest of her search. She does end up with the billowy shirt that makes her look like a patchy shaved dog, because the tiny closet she is assigned to does not have enough space for anything more than two weeks worth of clothes.

As she heads out, Noire calls to her and runs up to give her a charm with three bells attached to it. “Careful if you're heading out to the main complex. That part's really old and is said to be—” She glances around. “Well, y—you don't want to get caught around there after midnight.”

Severa rolls her eyes. “Strict security, huh?”

“No. Ghosts.”

Huh.

“Y-yeah. My parents are paranormal investigators, and used to take me with them on their trips because I was very sensitive to the environment.” Noire rubs her charm. “Most of the time, it was harmless. The times when it wasn't...” She looks thoughtful before reaching into her pocket and handing Severa a small, clear bag filled with a white substance.

Severa backs away. “Uh...no thanks.”

“It's salt, Severa,” Noire says with an edge of exasperation. “Just draw a circle around you if you feel threatened.”

Severa tentatively takes the baggie and places it into her pocket. “Um...thanks, Noire.” She heads down the hallway towards the main complex, travelling over the walkway bridges constructed between the facilities until she's in an older building with walls a dusty, gray colour. She slides her keypass at the card reader, and the doors creak to let her in. After about ten minutes of wandering down corridors that all look the freaking same, she turns into one that leads to Lucina's room and takes a breath at her door.

She knocks, the rapping of her knuckles echoing down the hallway like the blows of a hammer. If she wasn't already unnerved beforehand, that did not help. There's a shuffle down the hall on Severa's right, and she glances over. There's no one there.

Lucina opens her door. Her smile is replaced by surprise as Severa shoves her way in, putting as much space between her and the hallway as possible. “...you're pretty eager.” She glances at Severa and flushes slightly. “Though that's not a bad thing.”

“So, this is going to sound like a weird question, but is your hallway haunted?”

Lucina gives her a puzzled look. “Not at all. Well, at least this section of the corridor isn't. Although I would not advise anyone to go out wandering after midnight. We've had researchers go missing during late night rounds over the last few months.”

Great. Severa really wished Exalt Corp. mentioned that she may have to work in an isolated, haunted potato research facility with poor shopping options when they advertised the position. Not that she would have hesitated much for a chance to meet the girl in the research journal.

Severa rubs at one arm. “In that case, if we end up talking a little longer than expected, do you mind if I stay over?” One bag of salt is not enough to convince her to go out there.

Lucina flushes and glances at the bed sitting at the side of the room. “I don't mind at all.”

“I don't want to impose though. I can sleep on the floor or something.”

“...Severa, I'm absolutely all right with us sharing a bed.”

“Yeah, but—” Severa chokes on her words when Lucina sweeps in so close, she can feel heat from her through the thin fabric of her shirt.

Lucina places her hands on Severa's hips, and Severa internally screams in panic. “I really, really don't have any objections at all.” The fingers of one hand trace a path up Severa's shirt, stopping beneath her chest to rub at the fabric. “I like this, by the way.”

“Thank you,” Severa shrills. She clears her throat and says in her more usual octave, “I mean thanks. Just something I had lying around.”

Lucina gazes at her and chuckles. “I'm sure.” She slides a hand onto Severa's bicep, interest sparking in her eyes. “And you're quite fit as well.”

Severa's voice shoots up several musical pitches. She thinks she went up a fourth. “The gym's a good way to burn off stress!”

She nearly slaps herself. “I mean, the facility has an amazing recreational centre.”

Lucina nods. “Indeed. It has a portion of the first floor devoted to fencing.”

“Fencing?” Severa leans forward. “There are people who do that here?”

“Well, there's me, Inigo who works in Breeding, and my cousin Owain who's in the Physiology department.” She frowns, her thumb idly tracing circles on the inside of Severa's elbow. “Other than that, I don't know anyone else.”

Severa snorts, “Well, now you know another. I fence too.”

“Really?” Lucina's face lights up, as if every word Severa says makes her genuinely more interesting. “I would like to have a match with you sometime. How long have you been doing it?”

“Just a few years,” Severa grumbles. “It's not a big deal, and I'm kind of rusty.”

“Did you enter any competitions?”

“A few. I just have a couple of gold medals, nothing big.” Severa shrugs. “What about you?”

Lucina falters. “Oh. I might have a few trophies and awards somewhere.”

“A few? Like how many? Like enough to fill a room?”

Lucina looks away.

Oh dear god, Severa accepted a match invitation from a fencing grand champion. She wonders if it's too late to break her leg in an unfortunate accident involving the treadmill. “S-so moving on! Did you want to talk about research?”

Lucina's gaze wanders along the line of Severa's collarbone, her eyes dipping below. “Yes, how have things been going with the ring rot study?”

“Well, the samples still need to be incubated and cooked once the colonies are formed. After that, we need to add some DNA preparation—”

Lucina's not paying attention if the way she's leaning in with her gaze caught on Severa's mouth is a sign.

Severa's not good with girls or the whole dating thing. She knows this, because she freaks and shoves Lucina backwards so hard that she lands on her bed, only for Severa to fall after her when Lucina grabs onto her arm in surprise.

Severa shouts when her knee bangs against the steel frame of Lucina's bed, cursing up a storm until she realizes she's straddling a stunned Lucina, whose pupils are quickly expanding until there's hardly any blue in her eyes. She freezes.

Lucina exhales and places her hands on Severa's thighs. “You're more forward than I anticipated.”

Yeah, cause Severa totally meant to do this. “S-sorry. I'm not this—”

Lucina's not listening if the way her hands run up Severa's sides is any indication. She loops her arms around Severa's neck, pulling her down until Severa can feel Lucina's breath against her lips.

The moment's broken by the muted clanging of what sounds like pots and pans banging together far down the hallway. Severa sits up, looking around. “What's that?”

“Ghosts,” Lucina growls. She places her hand behind Severa's neck and tugs her down again, only for the startled researcher to glance towards the door. “Severa, please. Concentrate.”

“Okay, but why are ghosts banging kitchen pans together?” Severa frowns at the sound. She gets off of the bed as Lucina whimpers. “Like is this place infested with the spirits of disgruntled cooks?”

Lucina stares up at the ceiling for a long moment before sighing and getting up. She sits up on her bed and tucks her legs under her, glancing out her window with her cheeks still flushed. “There had been some stories that the people using this facility before us had tried to investigate the ghosts while warding them away with charms like loud sounds. They vanished as well and, occasionally, we can still hear them in halls.”

So, the facility is also being haunted by the people who researched the ghosts.

Yup. Severa is going to need a pay raise for this. Or a much shortened contract.

Lucina sighs and rubs at her temples. “Don't let it disturb you too much. In fact, I find it soothing at times when I do my research.”

Severa turns towards her, aware that she completely screwed the moment. “And what are you researching right now?”

“How to transform potatoes into a clean energy source, since there's such a prolific amount of them.” Lucina rests her cheek against one upturn knee. “But the research is quite draining in itself, not including the opposition we are receiving in the scientific community from our corporate rivals, Grim Leel Inc.”

Severa sits on a chair near Lucina's desk, not trusting herself to be near the other woman. “Do you need any help with the work? I have a minor in computer sciences, though I don't know how useful that would be.”

Lucina shakes her head when she stops. Something comes into her eyes. “Depends. The work requires a lot of collaboration, which may entail some late-night debriefing.” Her eyes flicker. “Would you be okay with that?”

“Well, yeah. It sounds like an interesting project.” Severa taps her fingers along the desk behind her with Lucina watching the motion. “So, when I can start?”

A corner of Lucina's mouth tugs up. “Well, how do you feel about coming back here tomorrow night?”

\---

Severa leaves Lucina's room afterwards while throwing salt all over herself like she's the cafeteria's beef stew. She strides from Lucina's room to the end of the hallway, muttering to herself that she won't gaze over her shoulder. Not at all. Nope.

When she reaches the corridor, a sob sounds from where she left. Severa curses herself. She looks back.

Nothing is behind her, but Severa swears she hears the rising pitch of someone begging in a muted tone. The voice sounds familiar, desperate.

Severa stares down into the darkness. She turns and leaves. This time, she doesn't look back.


	2. Kартошка

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severa digs deeper into the history of the hauntings and how to remove them from the building. If only she wasn't distracted by bureaucracy, Lucina, and her own research becoming possessed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a weird story, y'all. I appreciate everyone for reading it.

Severa shows up the following night with pockets full of salt, sage, several rosemary beads, and a stack of ghost warding charms. In addition to that, she brings a giant flashlight that's powerful enough to be a searchlight and a silver knife, which she had to bargain with Noire for. There is no fucking way she's going to get caught in these hallways after dark with NOTHING to defend herself. 

Lucina gives her a strange look when she opens the door but steps aside to let her in anyway. “That's an... interesting outfit.”

Severa scoffs. Like Lucina cares what she wears when she clearly wants it off. “Okay, there are ghosts that make people disappear in your hallways. I'm not taking any chances.” 

“Not everyone vanishes. Just those who wander after midnight,” Lucina argues.

“What if there's a fire after 12 am?”

“Then, we just won't have one then.”

Severa reconsiders Lucina's sanity. She thinks it's the facility. “Anyway, how's your research going?” 

Lucina eyes her. “Do you want to take off of your coat first?”

Severa hesitates before shrugging off the tan trenchcoat, baring the skin of her arms to the cool air of the room before sprinkling a line of salt at the door. Lucina probably thinks she's crazy now, but better crazy than... whatever happened to those researchers. 

She turns to speak to Lucina, whose gaze is caught on Severa's shoulders. Her face is flushed. “Uh... hey, you okay over there?'

“Fine!” Lucina coughs. “D-do you want some water or anything?” She hurries off before Severa can answer, ducking into a side room that contains a small kitchen and a door that leads to a bathroom. 

Severa eyes the door before hanging her coat on the coat hanger mounted on the back. She pockets a handful of ghost charms and the silver knife just in case. Lucina comes back with a glass of water, handing it to Severa before backing off, slightly flustered. She seems more reserved than she was the other night. “Are you sure you're okay?”

Lucina swallows and sits back down on her bed. “Yes, I was just thinking that you seem uneasy today.”

“Because there're ghosts out there that'll make you disappear.”

Lucina raises her brows. “Oh? Those? They're relatively mild compared to other reports we've received over the years.”

“....like what?”

Lucina starts listing off of her fingers. “There is a ragged doll contained in one of the rooms with a split down its back. Supposedly, we have reports of it giggling in the hallways and peeping into rooms, though the last researchers who looked into it ended up screaming and running from the facility. We haven't seen them since.

“There's a locked door with a square container of acid that we are not supposed to open no matter what. Once in a while, we hear movement from inside of it, and when that happens, the room is put on immediate lockdown, and no one is allowed in that side of the building.

“And there's a section of this facility that hasn't had any residents in it for the last decade or so when a lead researcher disappeared in an undocumented experiment on the basement floor. The stairs leading down to the room are said to be evil and haunted.”

Like everything else Lucina described has been full of gumdrops and rainbows.

Wait.

Severa asks, “You had a lead researcher vanish?”

Lucina sits on the bed and pulls a knee towards her. She rests her chin on it. “Yes, my father's best friend and my godfather. He had been working on a project that would allow us to transport potatoes across long distances quickly when something happened in his lab one day. My father had been there, but the researcher threw him out the door before the device exploded in a burst of white light, as my father described it. He later said that he woke up in the rubble of the lab with no sight of the project or his friend.” She turns her face away. “It was after his disappearance that the hauntings began.”

Severa stares. She's not sure what to say. “You sound like you miss him.”

Lucina shrugs, her face hidden behind a veil of dark hair. “He was a good man.” She shrugs and straightens out. “Regardless, it's in the past. All we can do now is move forward with the work he's done propelling us on.” 

“Has anyone done an investigation into what happened then and the ghosts here?” That seems like an obvious link to Severa if paranormal activity happened AFTER someone disappeared.

Lucina shakes her head. “No one has bothered to do so.”

“You have evil spirits haunting your facility!”

“Yes, but no one has officially launched a complaint against them, so HR hasn't investigated it.”

Severa makes one the next day.

She sits before the bare desk of a woman whose wide shoulders wouldn't be able to clear any doorways in the buliding unless she turned sideways. The HR manager wears a stern scowl while her hair is clipped into a crisp, short haircut. "No investigations."

Severa slams her palms on the desk between them. "There are people missing and—"

Kjelle dusts the desk where Severa touched it with a tiny brush she keeps on the side. "There have been no formal complaints."

"Because people aren't around to make them!"

"NO formal complaints."

Severa folds her arms against her chest. "Well, I want to make one."

Kjelle looks like if she could stab Severa with her eyes, she would. "Fine." She reaches into a drawer and drops a binder onto the desk that cracks the paint. "Fill that out and get it back to me." 

Severa swears and grabs the binder from the desk, tottering out when Kjelle calls out. "Oh, by the way. Can you let that fine lab assistant of yours know that his evaluation can be scheduled with me personally?"

Eeeeeew. "Can you get my complaint processed faster if I do?"

Kjelle rolls her eyes. "Fine. I'll see what I can do." She taps her fingers along her desk. "You'll need to gather some evidence first because I can convince my supervisor to launch an investigation."

"Wait, how am I supposed to get proof that there's ghosts?"

Kjelle shrugs. "You're the one with the problem."

Severa contemplates if it would be worth getting fired if she punched the HR Manager in the face. With reluctance, she concludes it is not. "Right. I'll see what I can do."

That night, she shows up at a surprised Lucina's door, who blushes and drops the files she's carrying in a messy pile. "I wasn't expecting you."

Severa scoots inside and helps Lucina pick up her papers, surprised that other woman seems so much shyer than the first time she invited her over. "I need your help."

Lucina frowns. "With what?"

"I'm filing an official complaint against the ghosts here. You know, unsafe work environment," Severa elaborates when Lucina stares. "I was hoping you could show me around to the places that would give the most evidence that supernatural phenomena is...uh...crippling workplace productivity."

Lucina stands up and places her documents on the desk behind her. "We have had a lot of staff disappear." She pulls out a flashlight from a drawer. "Where would you like to go?"

Severa thinks about her options, considering which one was the least worst out of them. "Can we check out the haunted staircase?"

After 10 minutes of walking down darkened hallways and coming to a stairwell with warm air surging from the bottom like the breath of sighing creature, Severa reconsiders her life choices. "What's down there?"

Lucina shrugs. “At the bottom, there is said to be a door that wakes in darkness, opening into nightmares.” 

Well...

That's not ominous.

Severa shines her light down the stairs, which seems to recede into darkness. “There's only like eight floors to this older building, right?”

She and Lucina walk down, footsteps echoing in the tiny stairwell. She counts 16 flights, and still the stairs go on. Maybe there's a basement section? 

They continue descending for another ten minutes, and when she sticks her flashlight over the railing, all she sees is the unending absence of light. She starts to think that this was a bad idea.

Severa clears her throat. “Hey, let's go back up.” Her voice is higher than she recognizes. She darts backwards up half a flight. “Don't you think this is kind of weird that we keep going down, and nothing's there?'

Lucina peers over the gap between the staircases. “I've heard stories from others who tried to get to the bottom. We have a few videofeeds from the ones who got down there the furthest before their feed got cut off.”

“Did they make it back?”

Lucina glances at her, and Severa knows the answer.

She grabs her by the arm and hauls her back up 32 flights.

Her lungs burn, but she's still tearing out of the last flight like she's running from her mother and it's only when she feels a yank on her arm that she stops. Lucina heaves, hunched over, hands on her knees. Her cheeks are flushed, and she looks at Severa with incredulity and something like awe.

Severa fidgets, glancing at the closed, darkened doors around her. “What?” 

“You're a really fast runner.” Lucina inhales deeply and stands back up, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Just something else I'm learning about you.”

“Yeah, well...can we leave?” Severa eyes one door that's slightly ajar, and she can see two giant mirrors across from one another for some reason. “Like, let's get back to your room.”

Lucina flushes, and Severa gets the sense that it has nothing to do with the run upstairs. “Of course.” She glances at Severa and bites her lower lip. “The door's always open for you.”

Severa hears the distant clang of pots again, and she's hauling towards Lucina towards the latter's room in a mad sprint. She hurls them both in and slams her shoulder against the door, locking it before dashing to her coat and setting some sage on fire.

Lucina snatches an empty coffee mug and holds it out to Severa in alarm, who hurls the burning herbs into it. “This is all a bit much.” She sets the mug on her desk and steers a heaving Severa towards a a sketch of a small, round object locked onto a potato on her desk. “Let me show you what I've been working on.”

...potato sketches?

Lucina sits Severa down, bending over her so her hair sweeps over Severa's shoulder. “This is the latest outline of the device I've been working on as a battery. I have made other physical models before, but there has always been some kind of radio signal interfering with the devices. I just haven't had a chance to go down to Engineering and have Gerome make a prototype.” 

Severa frowns and peers over the image while Lucina rubs at her back. “You're still missing a rudimentary operating system to make the device work, correct? I could probably make a basic one.” 

Lucina hums and paws at Severa's shirt, hand slipping under. Severa realizes that she isn't as interested in collaborating on potato research as she professes. “H-hey!”

Lucina's hand creeps up to find its mark, and Severa's thoughts short-circuit as she feels Lucina rub in circles. “You have a huge knot in your back.”

“Yeah. Ow!” Severa pulls away when she feels Lucina press into it. “My knot and I are happy together, thank you!” She turns her attention back to the drawing at hand. “When do you need this done by?”

Lucina sighs and straightens up. “I don't know. As soon as possible, preferably, but with all the other projects I'm running for Father, I haven't really had time to work further on the potato battery.”

“Well, I could take this and bring it down to Engineering. Maybe throw in an operating system or something.”

Lucina'a gaze brightens. “Would you? I would appreciate that so much.”

Severa makes her way down into the basement floor of the main building to get to the Prototypes section the next day. The front of the lab is clean with a pair of grey doors that have some ominious smoke seeping out of them at the back of the room. The engineer at the front glowers at her before striding away. He's rude, silent, ridiculously tall, and only says two things to her: "Go away," and "If I make this for you, will you go away?"

Which is how Severa ends up with a working prototype of Lucina's creation. She tinkers with it for about two weeks while Brady does her job for her, and she might have mumbled something to him about the HR Manager wanting to meet him. Lucina is slammed with her projects, and Severa rarely has a moment to talk to her now, which she misses. Eventually, Severa has a breakthrough with a program that works on the metal device after she adds a small screen. In her pride, she pushes the device onto a potato she snatched from her lab and names the operating system potatOS. 

Severa stands, stretching in victory. “Now, to get this to Lucina, and—”

The device comes to life and starts chirping while the screen flickers, numbers and letters scrambing across in uncomprehensible scrawls. And it's not turned on.

Severa stares at the device before scowling. Stupid ghosts won't even leave her research alone.

She eyes the device, which shakes a bit and makes high-pitched noises like a chick breaking from an egg. After it stills, Severa reaches out to it slowly as if the potato might bite her. She nearly drops it when it makes a whirring sound in her hand, letters flickering onto the interface to form a greeting.

Severa blinks at the 'Hello!' plastered in red letters on the device's screen. She thinks she might have made something accidentally to communicate with the dead. “Umm...hi?”

The device shakes, as if happy. The screen wipes out the letter before more words appear. 'It's a pleasure to meet you! It's been so long since I talked to someone!' 

Severa blinks. “Why is that?”

'No one can hear me. I've been trying to say something.”

She asks, “Are you a ghost?”

The device goes silent for a minute. It starts up again with a hum. 'I used to work here. I was the lead researcher before.' 

“What's your name?”

The screen's red letters disappears from view before they come back, bright against the black blackdrop.

'Robin. My name is Robin.'


	3. La Pomme de Terre

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severa unveils her proof at HR, only to get an unexpected response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: The word 'potato' and its variants are used at least 21 times in this chapter.

Kjelle peers skeptically at Severa's device, which now sits uselessly on the desk between them. “Nice prototype.”

Severa hisses, “It's proof! I swear.” She addresses the device. “Robin, say something.”

The potato shakes while the white machine whirs. 'Hello, I was the former lead researcher at Exalt Corps 12 years ago. You may find my files under Robin Grimm.'

Kjelle stares at the talking potato before looking back up at Severa. “You've made a toy and programmed it with a personality. I guess your programming skills weren't as terrible as your original assessment determined.” She turns to pull a file out of her desk. “Perhaps, we can promote you into the Prototypes section as a software developer.”

“Listen!” Severa jabs at the device. “Ghosts! Proof.”

'Hi,' Robin chirps nervously. 'I don't believe I'm dead, but this young girl seems to think I am.'

Kjelle rubs her chin. “We need to get this to Marketing. There may be an unknown demand for potato toys for tots.” She turns to her computer. “Head over to Cynthia, and let her figure out what advertisement she wants to do for the campaign.”

“Hey! What about my complaint?”

Kjelle waves her hand. “A toy is not proof. Come back with photos or videos. Something like that.”

Severa's left eyebrow ticks. This woman is thicker than blast-proof doors. The researcher pockets her device, which whirs quizzically. “C'mon, Robin. We have to talk to someone else to get something done.”

They get as far as two floors up when they're bombared with a brown-haired blur with flashy clothes and gabbering something that Severa realizes are words squished together. Cynthia jabs her in the chest. “I heard from Kjelle that you made a toy for us to sell!”

Severa growls, “I just left her office!”

Cynthia holds out a phone with several messages from the HR manager. “She's a total blabbermouth. Don't tell her anything. The whole office knew I ripped my pants within a minute of me telling her. She, like, emails everything automatically.” 

Great.

Cynthia peers around Severa. “Where is it?”

Severa reluctantly reaches into her pocket and holds out the device. “This is Robin.”

“That's so cute! You named it!” Cynthia grins. “I didn't think you had enough joy in you to do stuff like that. Y'know, like have fun.”

Severa's right eyebrow twitches. Maybe she can get away with strangling the marketing coordinator. 'It's not a toy!”

Cynthia rolls her eyes. “Fine. Let's see your budding new research development tool. You scientists are always so touchy with your titles.”

Robin clicks in Severa's hand. 'Miss, you sound familiar. Might you be related to Sumia Kynthos?”

Cynthia blinks. “Wow! Yeah, you're totally right. She was my mother!” She beams at Severa. “This is so cool. You made it sound like a real person!”

Robin hesitates. 'But I am a real person.'

Cynthia doesn't hear him. She peers over the device. “Hmm...but how do I make a potato playable for small children?”

“I don't know. Why don't you stick arms and legs in it, and sell it as a doll?” Severa snarls.

“Oh! Like a spin-off of Mr. Potato Head but with voice interaction.” Cynthia claps her hands over Severa's, who hisses. “Wow! You are so much more creative than I thought. Have you thought about joining marketing?”

Severa shakes her off and hurries away from a shouting Cynthia down the corridor and up the stairs into her office. When she gets to the fourth floor, she enters her lab and finds Brady sitting at the far table. He doesn't turn around at her entrance. “Hey, you got promoted. You no longer work here, get your crap to Engineering, and yada, yada, yada.” 

Severa stares. “Wait, what?”

“You're the head software developer now. Apparently, the head honcho loved your name of potatOS, and wanna see what else ya got.” He waves. “Bye.”

Severa strides forward, turning him around on his stool. “When did this happen?”

Brady holds out his phone. “Didn't you get the email? Kjelle sent it out like ten minutes ago.” He checks his messages, and Severa spots one from Lucina. 

Severa frowns. “Why are you getting emails from her?” Brady stiffens at the question and edges away. She squints at his dark hair, which matches Lucina's shade. “Wait, are you two related?”

Brady grins nervously. “Well, we might be brother and sister or something.”

...

“WHAT. You were seriously okay with your sister flirting with me?”

Brady waves his arms. “Hey! I didn't want it to be said that I got in the way of her getting laid!”

Severa slaps her face. Urgh, everything is so wrong here. “Okay, whatever! I'm going to totally ignore the fact that you lied to me via omission, and focus on what HR wants me to do.”

“Be a programming rockstar? Wasn't that obvious?”

“With what? My minor in computer science?” 

“Yeah, well. You made the toy. Might as well get some credit for it.”

Severa shoves the device into Brady's face. “It communicates with ghosts! Say something, Robin.”

Robin's voice rings out. 'I'm not quite comfortable with people saying I'm dead.'

Severa snarls, “See! Spirits!”

“Hey, the guy just said that he doesn't think he's dead. Cut him some slack, will ya?”

Robin says, "Er... maybe I'll speak later. It seems like you two are in the middle of something."

The device goes silent, and they both stare at it.

Severa speaks first. "Great. You killed my potato."

"Don't pin that on me. Your battery's inefficient."

"It is not my battery." Severa shoves the device into her coat pocket. "Whatever, Brady. I just came to get my stuff." Though Severa only learned that she was supposed to move, like, a minute ago.

Brady raises an eyebrow. "And here I thought ya actually came to work."

Severa rolls her eyes. "You're just mad, cause you're not promoted." She grabs an empty crate lying on the lab floor and moves to her desk to place her laptop in it. She pauses. "Hey, wait. You're the son of the CEO, aren't you? Why are you a grunt researcher?"

He shrugs. "I don't wanna mooch off of my pop's money. Make my own way into the world and start from the ground up, y'know?"

Severa stares at him before she nods. "That's admirable. Well, good luck with that, and thanks for putting up with me."

She turns to leave when Brady's voice pauses her. “By the way, ya might wanna swing by Lucina's place when you’ve got the chance.” He glances over his shoulder. “I’m just assuming that you don’t wanna seem like you were stealing credit for her ideas, right?”

...

Oh, crap.

Severa’s furiously rapping at Lucina’s door later that night, holding a set of silver bells in other hand that Noire swears wards away spirits. “Hey, Lucina! You in there?”

There’s shuffling behind the door, and Lucina opens it, looking as if she had just been sleeping on her feet. She blinks in surprise before smiling and opening the door further. “Severa. I haven’t had the pleasure of your company for a while.” She steps aside to let the redhead in.

Severa snorts. “I’m sure you find my company extremely pleasurable.” When she turns around, she spots a flush creeping up Lucina’s face. “What?”

Lucina shakes her head. She clears her throat. “I wish you wouldn’t put yourself down so much. You’re more pleasant to be around than you think.”

Severa shifts, turning her face away. “Whatever.” She grimaces before pausing. “I mean, thanks. I guess.”

Argh, why does Severa suck with words?

She turns around and pulls her device out of her pocket. “Here. This is the prototype based on your design.”

Lucina gazes at it. “Your potatOS?”

...Severa’s starting to think she should have given it another name. “Yours, really.”

A corner of Lucina’s mouth twitches. “You’re far more modest than you believe.” She sweeps over to her desk and seats herself, sighing. “I may have designed it, but you gave it life.”

Literally, apparently.

“Listen, I know it sounds crazy, but I accidentally made a device to talk with the dead.”

Lucina peers at her. Even she looks like she thinks Severa took a nose-dive off of the deep end.

“I’m serious!” Severa shakes the potato in her hand. “Hey, say something!”

The room lapses into silence. Severa stares at the device. Thanks for dying, Robin.

“Perhaps, you need to replace the potato?” Lucina studies the gleaming metal. “It looks like it’s out of battery.”

Severa grumbles. “I didn’t realize it required so much energy.”

Lucina nods in understanding. She gives Severa a spare potato in sympathy.

Severa fidgets with the device which chirps uncomfortably in her hand like a thousand birds, realizing she needs to recalibrate it. She glances at Lucina who gazes at her with a soft smile on her face. “What?”

Lucina blinks and shakes her head as if slowly waking up from a dream. “You just looked so focused.” She glances downwards briefly. “It’s very attractive.”

It is?

Lucina runs her hand through her hair, dark strands falling from her fingers like spilling starlight. “Congratulations on your promotion. You have the same meeting schedule that I do now.”

Severa stares. She remembers to respond. “What does that mean?”

“Three to four meetings a day. Minimum.” Lucina tilts her head in thought. “Sometimes, we go off-site to have them too.”

And what? Have one in the middle of a potato field?

Severa remembers why she came here. “Hey, you should take credit for the project. Sorry for people thinking that I’m the brilliant mastermind.”

Lucina smiles and shakes her head. “I don’t mind. You are brilliant, Severa. You just don’t see it yet. In any case, you’ve given me an idea for rechargeable potatoes for your device.”

...wonderful.

Severa shifts. "I don't know. I don't think I deserve this promotion."

Lucina pulls out her phone and shuffles through her messages. “Kjelle's already found a researcher to replace you, so you don't have an option but to move forward.”

Already? Severa's seat is still warm at her lab.

Lucina scrolls through the message. “A prodigal researcher from the same university as you, known for her contributions in rot and tuber resistance. She—” Lucina stares at her screen.

Severa moves to peer at the phone. “What?”

Lucina starts and tucks it into her pocket. “Nothing. She just looks like someone I used to know.” She crosses one leg over the other and leans back, baring the line of her throat. Severa catches herself staring and swallows. “Anyway, you may want to head to bed soon to get ready for our meetings tomorrow.”

“Why?”

Lucina grins, white teeth gleaming. “First one is at six in the morning.”

What the f—

\--

The CEO of Exalt Corps sits near the middle of the table, smiling at his groggy team gathered around him. “We have a new addition to our team. Please welcome Severa who has rapidly risen into the role of Lead Software Developer after her groundbreaking innovation on a long-lasting children’s toy. We already are getting positive reception from our focus groups, and everyone is wondering what is the secret to her compelling design. Now, I leave the floor open to any impromptu questions you may have of how she came to her genius.”

He gestures towards her, and everyone turns to stare.

Uh...

Severa shifts. “It was all Lucina’s design. I just jammed a screen on a potato.”

Lucina speaks up from the CEO’s side. “I laid the groundwork. You provided the effort needed to shape it to its present form.”

The CEO glances between the pair of them and grins. “I see your humbleness is on par with my daughter’s.” He turns to the screen behind him. “Very well. We’ll leave the questions for later as we move onto our next topic.”

He gestures to the woman beside him with a slightly devilish smile and hair the colour of pale straw. “Let’s also welcome our new Lead Researcher, who will collaborate with Severa on their new project to bring potatOS to the local and international markets.”

Severa breaks in, “Wait, when did I get a new project?”

“Just now! I assigned it to you!” Chrom grins. He slaps his hands together. “You two can meet afterwards to connect and see what brilliant ideas you both bring to the table.”

Umm...sure.

The meeting goes into the minutiae of various problems with the slowness of the database system, the cost of current research projects, and predictions of market trends of Grim Leel Inc.’s brand new tuber that they plan to release at the International Potato Conference.

“It’ll topple the market as we know it,” the Vice President moans into Severa’s ear at the end of the meeting. The bags under his eyes are heavy, as if he spent the last few weeks worried sick over this proposed potato. “Priming their crops with thiamin to undermine the prevailing virus X? This could redistribute power among the prevailing potato corporations we know it.”

Severa nods while looking desperately at the new researcher. The woman snorts into her hand and comes over, laying a cool palm on Severa’s arm. “Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Gillespie, but I need to talk to my new partner to see what leads we can generate on our project.” 

The Vice President nods, lost in his thoughts. “Just call me Frederick.” He walks away, muttering about the calamity of the tubers.

Severa sighs and turns to her rescuer. “Thank you, I owe you one.” 

The woman smiles and slides close. “I’m sure I’ll find a way for you to repay me back.”

Severa starts and takes a tiny step back. “Wow, friendly much?”

“I’m sorry. I’ve just heard a lot about your work—“ From who? Brady? “—and I was interested in sharing notes. My father was a famous researcher, and sometimes his shoes feel too big to fill.”

Despite every ounce dedicated against it, Severa feels something stirring in her chest. Like empathy. “Yeah, I know how that feels.” 

She glances around them to ensure no one is nearby. Lucina is behind the researcher, talking to Chrom while holding a mug of long-cold coffee. Severa inhales and leans in. “My mother and father are part of the governing group of Regna Ferox.” 

When the woman’s eyes brighten with interest, Severa stiffens and steps back. “I’m sure you’ll find out more about it working under me.”

She flicks her gaze over Severa. “As the researcher assigned to your project, I’m sure I’ll enjoy working under you...intimately.”

Behind her, Severa spots Lucina dropping her mug.

The woman continues on, “Who are your parents anyway?”

Severa doesn’t want to talk about that. “That’s boring. A snore fest. What about your parents? You said your father’s also a researcher?”

“In potato research as well, so I’m following in his footsteps. He actually used to work here until 12 years ago.”

At her own words, something in Severa’s mind clicks together. “12 years ago? Who was your father? Who are you?”

“He was one of the founders of Exalt Corp before his death. I'm his prodigy.” The woman smiles, a bit too widely, and extends her hand. “Morgan Grimm, at your service.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _I Love You. And Potatoes._  
>     
> "One day,  
> I tried to tell you  
> "I love you"  
> But instead,  
> I got scared  
> And said  
> "I love potatoes"  
> So you went out  
> And bought me one.  
> Because  
> You love me too."
> 
> -Maia Victoria


	4. Khoai Tây

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severa survives her first work day with her new partner, and gets a new one by the end of their preliminary period.

Severa pulls Morgan into a nearby room when they get a chance to breathe from the meetings. Which is an ordeal, considering how many people want to congratulate her, talk to Morgan, or both.

Cynthia holds out her hands in a plea as Severa pushes Morgan out of the room. “Wait, best buddy! My phone’s home screen froze. What do I do?”

“I’m not in IT or your phone’s help desk!” Severa snarls. “Turn it on and off!”

She hauls Morgan out and down the hall into an empty meeting room. Morgan glances at the closed door behind them. She smirks. “You really wanted me alone, huh?”

Severa yanks her device out of her pocket. “Here!” She breathes hard. “This is Robin.”

Morgan takes the white machine into her hand. “Your medium for potatOS, right? It’s interesting that you named it after my father.”

“It is him!”

Morgan stares at her. After a while, she smiles. “Yeah, I guess you could say it is him, because of the legacy he gave to us in tuberology.” She looks touched. “Thanks, Severa.”

Oh, for—

Severa smacks her device. “Robin, wake up!”

Robin reprimands her. “I’m not a TV, Severa.”

Morgan blinks. “Dad?”

“Morgan?”

“Wow, Dad. It really sounds like you.” Morgan smile turns sad. “I miss you.”

“I’m here, Morgan! I’m...a potato, but this is really me.” The device clicks and whirs. “Remember when you were eight, and you accidentally kicked your brother into a window when he tickled you? I replaced the window pane before your mother came home.” 

“Yeah, but Mom told everyone that story when she found out. Anyone could say that.”

“Well, what about the fact I taught you Plegian when you were little.” Robin begins to sing, a lilting song in a language with rounded vowels and words that flow like music. He has a surprisingly good singing voice. After a moment, Morgan joins in. Hers is not so good. The kindest way to describe it is scraping a rasp against your eardrum.

When they’re done, Morgan shakes her head as if waking from a spell. “That’s a famous lullaby. Most Plegians would know it.” Morgan pauses. “Well, maybe it’s fairly plausible that this potato is my father.” She stares at it before she starts blinking rapidly, eyes wet with a glossy sheen. “Dad!”

“Morgan, I’m so sorry I left you and your brother.”

“No time for regrets, Dad! We need to make up for lost time!”

“First, I need to tell you what happened 12 years ago—“

“Later! We need Daddy-Daughter time first.”

Severa cuts in. “Hey, wait. This sounds import—“

Morgan whirls on her. “I haven’t talked to my father for 12 years, because he was busy being dead.”

“Honey, I’m not—“

Morgan ignores him. “Are you really going to tell me that I can’t have a few minutes alone with my father to catch him up on what he’s missed since he’s been gone?”

Severa glances at Morgan’s wide eyes and harrumphs. She crosses her arms. “Well, I guess five minutes is enough to talk—“

Morgan grabs her arm and hauls her out. “Great! Let’s play outside.”

“I didn’t agree to—“

Severa ends up helping Morgan play catch with her father. With Robin screaming as the ball.

Morgan shouts, “Potatoes can’t feel fear, Dad!”

“I hear whooshing!” Robin rotates through the air, a glorious round disc attached to a yellow potato. “What’s going on?”

Severa snatches Morgan’s toss out of the air, prompting the other to pout. “This is idiotic! What if someone sees?”

Morgan glances up to the darkened glass windows that line the building beside them. “We’re just playing catch, Severa. What could they possibly think we’re doing?”

Severa storms forward, holding Robin up like a beacon. “We are finding out what happened when your dad disappeared.” She stops in front of Morgan and juts out the device between them. “Spill it, Robin.”

“Have we stopped with throwing me?” Robin waits for a few seconds. “All right, so 12 years ago—“

Morgan groans, “BOOOORING.”

Severa snaps, “Do you have ADD or something?”

“That is not something to joke about, Severa.”

“Girls, please. As I was saying, I was working on a top-secret teleportation device—“

Not so secret now.

“—to figure out a way to transport freshly harvested potatoes quickly when I accidentally came across a book buried deep in the basement library with a strange archaic mark like an eye weeping. It felt very malevolent and evil, like touching the thing would curse me. However, it also had the solution to my potato transportation problem, so I used it.

“I admit, once I had drawn the chalk circle and melted 13 red candles arranged in the shape of an upside pentagram around my teleportation machine, I was starting to doubt the wisdom of this decision. However, for the purpose of potato research, I was willing to take the chance. Also, I had gotten approval from Chrom to continue with the project of teleporting potatoes.”

Severa slaps her face. “If you could teleport potatoes, couldn’t you teleport people too?”

“But I couldn’t teleport potatoes, which was the problem. And people are of a different composition, so who knows what might happen if they go through the machine. However, while I couldn’t teleport, the book suggests I could summon them instead, so I turned on the machine. When it turned bright white, I threw Chrom out of the room before the light consumed me.” Robin goes quiet. “I summoned something, but I’m not sure what.”

Morgan peers at the device. “So, what happened to you, Dad?”

“I don’t even know how to begin to describe where I am, but I think I’m in another world.”

Duh. Cause he’s dead.

Robin continues, “However, I want to get whatever I summoned back where it came from, and I want to come back home.”

Severa’s not sure if the ghost of the former lead potato researcher would liven up the facilities. “We’ll see what we can do.”

Robin chirps. “Thank you, Severa. You’re a good person, y’know.”

Severa sweeps Morgan, tucking the device into her pocket. “Yeah, whatever.”

The pair of them are swamped with meetings for the rest of the day, and by the time, they get to their assigned lab, Severa collapses onto the cot while Morgan sits at the lab table and promptly falls asleep. 

When Severa wakes up, it’s the wee hours of the morning, and Morgan is tinkering with the device. There’s a battery indicator attached to the potato that signals it’s halfway drained.

Severa stretches and groans, moving from the cot to examine the potato. “That’s a good idea, but won’t that drain the battery?”

Morgan pauses before jamming the battery indicator deeper. “We’ll just have to get a bigger potato then!” While Severa stares at her, she pulls a sheaf of sheets toward them. “By the way, Lucina dropped off these documents for our projects while you were out cold. It was nice to see her, and have a catch-up chat.”

Severa starts. “You know her?”

Morgan looks amused. “She didn’t tell you?” She hands the papers to Severa. “Anyway, read through these files. We’re supposed to have a working adjustment to your prototype in two days and present our work to the CEO and the CFO.” She grins, fiddling with the device while Severa has a heart attack about the presentation. “It’s nice to see family again.”

“Wait, what did you sa—“

Morgan whips around and shoves a picture of a sinister-looking potato peeler. “This is Grim Leel’s best selling product. An extremely clean, efficient kitchen tool they called the Grim Peel. We need to think of how to make your device outsell it, or we’re demoted to janitorial duty.” She steps back and cocks both of her index fingers towards Severa. “And go.”

Severa doesn’t sleep for the next day.

The day afterwards, she’s dragged out to the nearest potato field near the main facility at the ass-crack of dawn, because the CEO wanted to have a meeting about “getting back to their roots.”

Chrom claps his gloved hands together and holds them up to the sky. It’s almost a majestic gesture if he wasn’t wearing a straw hat and overalls. Severa chafes in the flannel she borrows from Noire while beside her, Morgan chews on a piece of hay to complete her farmer’s look, as demanded to be mandatory for the field meeting. 

The CEO begins, “We are here at 4:45 am to start our meeting with a remembrance of the humble origins of our forefathers.Before we came to this land, the original inhabitants grew plentiful amounts and varieties of the tubers we have grown to love, and attributed the bounty of their crops to the god they worshipped — a god as merciless and unforgiving as it is tasty.

“Let’s give thanks as we always do this time of year to the grace of the potato god, who give us such delicious crops.” He brings his hands together and bows his head. “To the potato god.”

Everyone but Severa echoes, “The potato god.”

Chrom concludes, “Amen.” He shifts his straw hat and stares out into the field of neat, green rows. “Well, let’s get harvesting as our ancestors did a long time ago.”

Severa learns that she despises digging up potatoes. Especially when the marketing coordinator forgets Severa’s in the field and comes bearing down on her with a harvester. 

Cynthia slaps the dirt off of Severa’s back. “Sheesh, I already said I was sorry for, like, forever. You only got harvested a little, and you just don’t let up about it.”

The left sleeve of Severa's flannel is shredded. She has to buy Noire a new shirt. "You are not allowed on any more machines."

Cynthia rolls her eyes. "Fine. I'm going to help out Inigo with collecting the ones left behind." She leaves while Severa dusts herself off. 

Severa feels a gentle hand on her upper arm, and she hears Lucina's voice. "Are you okay? I thought I saw you go under the harvester."

Severa's tongue feels thick all of a sudden. She shrugs. "I only got harvested a little." She realizes what she said and mentally curses at Cynthia. "What about you?"

Lucina hums and brushes some dirt from Severa's collar while the latter feels hot in places that are distracting. "Just concerned, because you're spending so much time with Morgan."

Severa frowns. "Wait, what does that have to do with anything?"

Lucina glances down but doesn't hide her scowl. “You work together, slept in the same room together, played catch together—“

“Wait, you’re jealous over catch?” Did Severa mention that it was with the spirit of Lucina’s dead godfather as the potato ball? 

"I just saw you with Morgan through the window of my lab." Lucina raises her gaze. "Is it wrong for me to wish it was me who was playing with you?"

"...in which way did you mean that?"

Heavy hands claps both of them on the shoulders. Severa shouts while Lucina nearly takes the CEO's head off. "Whoa, there. I just wanted to see if our newest developer was enjoying herself at our meeting."

Severa scowls. "Immensely. I love being rolled into dirt."

Chrom grins, "And you're such a natural at it." He slaps her on the back. "Just wanted to give you a head's up that your prototype presentation is at my office tomorrow, and Lucina asked to join. I expect to see great things from you." He smiles at Severa who laughs nervously. "Well, see you soon!" 

He laughs and leaves while Severa stares ahead at an unending potato field.

Lucina touches her arm in concern. "Are you okay?"

Severa mutters, "I'm going to be the new janitor."

She drags Morgan back to the lab afterwards where they work until night to figure out what new innovation they can present. 

Morgan gabs away with Robin, talking into the device like it’s a phone and writing down his insights into their project.

Severa sighs and heads down into the cafeteria. She comes back fifteen minutes later with two plates of dinner - slices of pot roast and potatoes. She slides a dish across the lab table to a surprised Morgan who stares at the machine in her hand in befuddlement. “Here.”

“Thanks. This thing just stopped working.” Morgan frowns at the device. “Well, Dad’s dead.”

Yeah, they knew that.

Morgan glances around the lab before spotting the boiled potatoes on her plate. “Ah! Here we go.” She stabs the device into her dinner.

Severa has never had an aneurysm, but she imagines that this is what it feels like. “What are you doing?” she hisses.

“Science, Severa!” Morgan bubbles, happily. “It's not about why! It's about why not! You can’t have breakthroughs and discoveries without experimentation!”

The device blinks on. Robin says, “I think I was lost there for a bit.”

“Yeah! Sorry, Dad! Battery died. You know how it is with root vegetables.”

Severa rolls her eyes as Morgan and Robin continue chatting. It’s only when Morgan leaves for a meeting with someone from physiology that Severa gets a chance to look over the device. The battery indicator is still full, despite a hour of incessant talking. Severa blinks before sitting down and picking up a pen to write notes and observations for her report while fiddling with the indicator.

\--

The next morning, Severa sits in front of the CEO, the CFO, and Lucina. She's glad they're not in a potato field.

Severa clears her throat and pushes forward a short report on how to extend the battery life of the potato. Morgan explains their premise with a demonstration involving hand puppets that she found somewhere while the CEO grows amused and high-fives a puppet at some point. The CFO sniffs in disdain, fiddling with her tea cup while her fine, blonde ringlets shift slightly when she moves. Lucina smiles at Severa, who feels blood flee from her face when Morgan finishes, and everyone turns their attention to her.

Severa clears her throat. “In summary, if you boil the potatoes, they last longer.”

The CFO shifts the papers in front of her, eyes narrowing. "What does this mean for the business side of Exalt Corp?"

Severa is luckily prepared for this question. "A potato boiled for eight minutes has 10 times the battery power of a raw one, and the efficiency of the potato can be increased if it's cut into four or five slices. Given the abundance and cheapness of potatoes, you could produce a battery that can supply power to a cell phone for one-tenth the cost."

The CFO tilts her head. "Why is that, per say?"

Lucina answers for her. "Boiling the potato would reduce the resistance in the flesh, so electrons can travel more freely between the cathode and anode. Isn't that right, Severa?" 

Severa nods rapidly. She feels sweat bead down her back.

The blonde woman sighs and pushes back the report. "Acceptable. Please let the scientists answer for themselves next time, honey."

"Yes, Mother."

The CEO shifts through the report. "You named the device after Robin? My former partner and brother-in-law?"

Brother-in-law?

Wait.

Severa points at Morgan. "You're related to everyone?"

Morgan says, "Well, clearly not to Aunt Maribelle, but mostly everyone." She waves to the CEO. "Hi, Uncle Chrom."

Severa whips around. "Why didn't you say this at the meeting when you introduced her?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Chrom gets up and stands besides Morgan. "We look alike, so we're clearly family!"

No. No, it's not.

Chrom waves off her question. "Anyway, that's no matter. What we do need to do is get your potato extended battery life idea over to the boys in Engineering, so they can figure out the next step. As for you two, we'll have to get you access to Robin's old lab, so you can sift through his notes and see what you can use."

"Wait, Uncle Chrom! We can just talk to Dad!"

Chrom shakes his head. "He's gone, Morgan." He goes quiet. "I saw him go myself."

Morgan reaches into Severa's pants pocket and the latter shouts while Lucina glares. "Look, you can talk to him yourself." 

The device whirs. "Hello? Morgan? Severa?"

Chrom and Maribelle stare at the potato in Morgan's hand. He smiles sadly. "You made a great replica, Severa. It sounds just like him." 

The CEO walks out with the CFO beside him. He hollers back at them. "See what else you can do with the battery project! You two are on the right track!" He turns around and gestures to his daughter. "You're on this project too now if you want, Lucina."

Lucina glances between Morgan and Severa, and her gaze cools. "I think I will join. Thank you, Father."

The door shuts behind the CEO and CFO, leaving the three in silence. Morgan speaks up first, cozying up to Severa while Lucina nearly turns purple. "So, what's new with you, Lucina?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Legitimate potato research was done in this story: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/a-potato-battery-can-light-up-a-room-for-over-a-month-180948260/


	5. Cartof

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severa's research team gets bigger as they search for answers in Robin's lab about what happened 12 years ago.

Severa meets Morgan’s brother at the gym where he tries to talk to her as she’s on the treadmill.

A blonde man runs up to her, dressed in a fencing outfit. “I’ve heard so much about you! The new software developer working with Morgan Grimm?”

Severa glares at him, panting on her last 30 second sprint. “Not..a...good time.”

He nods, not disturbed. “I’ll come back.”

True to his word, he does return when Severa’s huffing after finishing her cooldown and wiping off her face with a towel. He holds out his hand. “Owain Grimm. Pleasure to meet you.”

Severa stares at him before shaking his hand. How many Grimms are there running around? “Severa. But you already knew that.”

Owain grins. “Yeah. You’ve gotten kind of famous here.”

Severa sniffs and tosses her towel over one shoulder, making her way to the lockers on the far side of the gym. “Not as famous as your father.” She glances at him. “Or your sister. Did you get a chance to see her?”

He nods. “Morgan messaged me before she arrived. It’s great to see her after she ran away from home. She also let our mother know she's here after settling in.” He pauses. “Mom’s coming to kill her.”

Not Severa’s problem. Oh, wait. She needs Morgan alive to avoid janitorial duty. “Can your mom wait like a week to slaughter her? I need your sister for our project.” 

“Speaking of which—“ Owain inserts himself between Severa and the door to the women’s locker room. “—-I want in.”

Severa curses. “On the potato battery project?”

Owain meets her gaze. “I heard you made something named after my father that you claim is him.”

Severa sighs and unclips Robin from her belt where she made a potato pouch for him. “Knock yourself out.”

Owain blinks and takes it. “Dad?”

“Owain?” Robin sounds surprised and wistful before sinking into a shade of sadness. “You sound like you grew up without me.”

Owain clears his throat. His eyes gleam with a sheen of moisture. “I’m working in Physiology now, Dad. One of your specialities.” A long pause. “I miss you. How is it where you are?”

Robin hesitates. “I don’t think you’d believe me if you don’t come here yourself.” A pause. “How is your mother?” His voice is hesitant like he’s divorced instead of dead.

“She’s good.” Owain blinks, getting his colour back into his cheeks. “Say, what do you say to a rousing game of catch—“

“No,” Severa and Robin chorus together. She plucks him out of Owain’s hands, and hears a relieved sigh from the device.

Owain pouts. “Fine, but at least let me into what you plan to do with him.”

Severa crosses her arms. "Why? So, you can launch a potato plushie campaign?"

"No. I want to help you with your HR complaint against the ghosts here." He rubs the back of his neck. "I uh...may have broken into the HR manager's cabinet and read your file. But in a non-creepy way!"

Oh, good. Severa was absolutely against people reading personal reports on her if it was in a creepy way. "Why? What's with the sudden interest? You wanna give me another promotion? Another project? Launch me into space, so I can plant the first potato on the moon? Make me open up the next meeting with an ode to the potato on the ukulele?" Clone Severa into a potato, imbuing it with spud superpowers?

"No! Nothing like that!" He shakes his head. “It's because I believe you. I'm serious.”

Severa stares back. Owain doesn’t look like the type to actually be serious. “What the heck is wrong with this place?”

Owain shrugs. “Everything went topsy-turvy the day Dad disappeared for some reason. Even Uncle Chrom’s gotten a bit loonier.” He leans in. “I want to help you solve this mystery. And I want my dad back.”

Lucina comes into the gym, dressed in her fencing gear. She stares at Owain and Severa standing close together, and her eyes narrow. “Severa, it seems like you’re rather fond of my cousins.”

Owain leaps away. “Forsoothe, yon arrows and slings are misguided, for I was merely dusting the lady’s shoulder for the slightest speck that would mire her appearance.”

Lucina looks unconvinced. “Uh-huh.” She looks at Severa. "Was that really it?"

"...I don't even know what he said." 

Lucina glares at Owain and pulls down her face mask. Severa feels uneasy. "Let's get started." Her tone is curt, and she gestures to a fencing area not too far off. 

Owain exchanges glances with Severa before following his cousin and taking his spot opposite her. 

When the match starts, Lucina strikes hard and fast, twisting her sword like a whip to tap Owain much harder than necessary. Owain seems to recognize it too with the way he leaps backwards.

He hollers, “Whoa! Time out!” He tugs his mask up, showing his face. “Lucina, are you okay?”

“Fine.” Lucina yanks off of her face covering and glares at him. “You’re the one who seems sluggish today.” She glances between him and Severa. “Distracted?”

Owain follows her gaze to Severa, and his eyes widen. “No! I mean only by the tower of potato prowess that I see before me! I merely asked if Severa would allow me to accompany her on her quest to scour the universe for the answers to the mystery of the magnificent potato battery!”

"Really?"

Owain nods frantically while Severa eyes the exit wistfully. "You can ask the fine lady herself."

Lucina turns to Severa, who feels her face heat up. After a few moments of scanning Severa's expression, Lucina’s shoulders relax. “I see. I may have misunderstood your intentions.” She scratches at her cheek, which flush slightly. “In any case, you’ll have to get permission from Father to join our research team.”

Severa protests, “Wait, don’t I get a say in this?”

Lucina gazes at her, almost looking hopeful. “Do you have an objection to my cousin joining?”

Owain gestures wildly to the device on her pouch. Severa hesitates. “Not exactly, but I need to check with Morgan too.”

Morgan doesn’t care. “Sounds fun! I’d love to have my brother along.” She latches onto Severa’s arm, eyes wide and voice low. “So, what are we going to do today?”

Lucina clears her throat, her expression tight and the tips of her ears red. “We are going to meet with Owain at Robin’s old lab. Father already gave us the okay to include him and explore his old research.” She strides forward, leading the way through corridors and over walkways to Lucina’s main building while Severa continually shakes Morgan off of her arm.

"Uncle Robin's lab is a floor above my room. I used to sleep in my room and hear all manners of peaceful explosions in the night." Lucina leads them into a staircase that only seems to go up. "However, the security device has been encrypted, so only those with enough genetic similarity can open his lab." 

Morgan nods. "I remember Uncle Chrom taking Owain to open Dad's lab after the accident. I always wanted to try it myself." 

"Father has left the lab intact for the most part, although the genetic component to the lab security does make it hard for the cleaning crew to come in and dust regularly." Lucina turns a corner to see Owain pacing in front of a white wall with a hand pad on it.

Owain spots them and jumps to attention. "Ladies, ready to enter the boudoir of my father's thoughts?"

Robin crackles on Severa's belt. "The what of my thoughts?"

Lucina starts and stares at the device while Morgan flies forward and slaps her palm on the hand pad, and the wall lifts to reveal an opening into a dark lab. "Boudoir, Dad! You know, where you keep all the women that aren't Mom?" She cheerfully enters while Robin splutters. Owain follows his sister while Lucina lays a hand on Severa's shoulder as she passes.

Lucina asks, "May I interact with your prototype?"

Severa shrugs and tosses Robin to Lucina. "Knock yourself out. It's just the spirit of your dead uncle channeling himself through a potato."

"I...didn't quite get that."

Severa sighs. She thought she explained it concisely. "Okay, I--"

Morgan's voice booms from the room. "Hey, I found some old book about the lore of the land that Dad didn't write in! I think it might give us some clues as to what he was looking into."

"He was looking into teleportation technology." Severa snatches Robin from Lucina's hand and storms into the dusty lab. "He told us himself."

"Yeah, but he didn't mention anything about potato power and how it affects the native people of the region!" Morgan lifts a tome with a sinister black leather cover over her head while a startled Owain tries to stop her when she leaps onto an old chair that creaks ominously. "And plus, my minor is in anthropology!"

Morgan hums as she flips open the page of the malevolent book. “It says here that a potato prodigy of yore will be born and bring prosperity to the loyal potato people.”

What the heck are potato people? Or who?

Morgan jabs a picture of an angry-looking potato welding a spear and a shovel in the other hand. "Here is Axomamatil, the ancient potato god that ruled over an iron fist long ago. His temper was said to be so fierce that only regular sacrifices appeased him."

Severa stares at the drawing. There are bumps in the drawing that looks like furrowed brows and ridge where the mouth would approximately that resembles a scowl. Kudos to the artist for making a potato look furious. "How does this help us?"

Morgan flips through the tome. "Well, according to this, if we pray really hard to him, he may grant us more potatoes." 

...wonderful.

"However, it looks like Dad scribbled something in the margins here that summoning him through an ancient, evil ritual would enable the transportation of potato matter across large distances." Morgan rubs her chin. "Hmmm..."

Severa closes the book. "No summoning."

Morgan protests, "But science!"

Severa stabs the book with her finger. "Okay, this is verging on witchcraft and magic rather than science." She picks up the book, which she swears lets out a tiny scream. "I'm going to take this and hide it, so we are not summoning any evil potato gods."

Morgan huffs and folds her arms. Owain stares at the book contemplatively. "You think that's what happened with my father? And something else came through too?"

Lucina and Morgan look at him. After a few moment, a light goes on in Owain's eyes and he leaps back, striking a pose. "I mean, there we go striking fear in the hearts of demonic potato fiends, wishing to hoard their magnificent potato powers to themselves in their greed. We shall prevail to them to--"

Severa waves her hand. "Blah, blah, potatoes. I get it." She turns and tucks the book under her elbow, sprinting out of the room. "Well, I'm tired. Talk to you guys later!"

Lucina calls after her. "Severa, remember! You're leading the meeting tomorrow with a presentation."

"Yeah, yeah!"

Severa hauls herself to her room and slams the door, startling Noire who is reading on her bed. She yanks Robin from her belt and nearly snarls into the device. "Spill it. Did you summon this potato god thing and got us all haunted?"

Noire crosses herself. "Umm...you don't really need me for this conversation." She leaves after throwing several rosaries around Severa and shoving some sage into her pockets.

When Noire leaves, Severa turns her attention back to Robin. "Did you?"

Robin sighs, "Yeah, it sounds like I did."

"So, how do we get rid of the ghosts and this god?"

"The most logical answer would be to unsummon it. However, we may need to get the book I used with the ancient incantations for calling forth Axomamatil. I think I may have left it downstairs when I got disembodied, but I'm not sure. You may have to go find it first, and it might be in the basement."

Severa holds Robin up to her face. "But how do I find it? Or even figure out if it's somewhere in the building?" It's not like she can just stroll up to the CEO and ask for a detailed report of the explosion 12 years ago.

...she probably can, can't she? "Fine, I'll go ask the CEO."

Robin chirps, "Or Lucina."

Severa stares at the device in her hands. "Why her?"

"Why not?" Robin sounds perplexed. "She was there too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year!


	6. Jagaimo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severa and her final team dispel the darkness of the ghosts at last. At least in the staircase.

Severa clears her throat as she stands up in front of the entire executive team, a sheet with hasty scribbles in her hands while Morgan sits with a grin and a ukulele. She starts, “Oh, potato potato, tastiest of tubers. You are the base of our soups and our fries, crispy and delicious in starchy carbohydrates, bursting with vitamins in the magnificence of your baked skins.

“Oh, potato potato, without you, our grand operation would not exist, plagued by potato gods or ghosts. You alone hold us on our knees before you, the joy of boiled potatoes everyday takes more words than I can express. Your lumpy, angry god is a reminder of whom we owe our harvest and our livelihood to.

“Oh, potato potato—” Severa glances to the side with a frowning Morgan staring at a broken ukulele string. Oh, screw this. “—potato. I'm done.” 

The CEO claps, and everyone else joins in. Lucina smiles at her, and Severa feels the bottom of her stomach warm. Chrom grins. “That was a splendid first ode. You're a natural poet! I've never heard anyone wax on so well about the elegance of the potato.”

Severa frowns. She swears this place is getting to her. “Yeah, thanks. I just...love them.” Either that or Severa admits she spent a good portion of her night begging Robin and Noire for help with her poem. “So, next item on the agenda?” She ignores Morgan sadly lifting her ukulele to her.

The meeting goes on smoothly as relatively normal as can be with Frederick presenting a harried estimate of the toppling of the current potato giants in the industry with estimates of doom like it's the potato apocalypse. It doesn't end fast enough.

After leaving Morgan to the sympathy of her uncle who examines the broken instrument, Severa grabs Lucina by the elbow and steers her into a nearby room. She closes the door, and turns to see a blushing Lucina who fiddles with her paper. Why is she so much more reserved than the girl who first invited Severa to her room?

Lucina glances at her. “Do you need something, Severa? I'd be glad to give it to you.” Her blush deepens. 

“Okay, first off. Let me say this place is really weird. Second, why are you so much shyer now than before when I used to work with your brother?” Severa thinks for a moment. “Oh, and what did you see 12 years ago at the accident that wiped out Robin Grimm?”

“That's...a lot of questions. I'll start in order.” Lucina leans back against the edge of a conference table. “Yes, while Exalt Corp. has always had its ranks full of eccentricity, the levels of odd occurrences and behaviours have risen noticeably since my uncle's disappearance. It has also been noted that the longer someone stays at the company, the more reports HR seems to receive about their ...odd behaviour.” 

Seeing that the HR Manager's main way of dealing with complaints is denial, Severa is surprised that there are reports at all.

Lucina continues, putting down her papers. “Secondly, regarding my ...reservation.” She sighs and runs her hand through her hair. Spots of pink appear on her cheeks. “I was...taking some advice from well-meaning friends when I first invited you to my room.”

“Who?”

“Owain and Inigo from Breeding. They had it on good faith from a famous men's magazine that women liked some sort of confident swaggering,” Lucina answers miserably. “I just thought...” She glances up. “I thought being direct would get your attention.”

It certainly did. “Wait, why? And please don't use the word 'potato' in your explanation.”

Lucina blushes so hard that Severa thinks she would pass out for a moment. She moves away from the table. “Better yet, why don't I show you?”

The dark-haired woman moves towards her until Severa's back hits the wall, heartbeat hammering in her throat. “H-hey! What—”

Lucina comes so close that Severa can feel her breath on her face, see speckles of grey like silver in her eyes. Severa places her hands on Lucina's shoulders, but she doesn't push her away. Lucina swallows, but nothing comes out though her flush creeps down her throat. “Severa, I—”

Severa panicks. She kisses Lucina. 

Lucina makes a startled sound before she stops moving, as if terrified to break the moment. Severa lets go, and Lucina stares at her, wide-eyed. 

Severa huffs, feeling her face flare up like a volcano. She pushes Lucina away gently. “That's what you were going for all those nights ago, wasn't it?”

It'd better be. Otherwise, Severa just got herself fired for an office romance for no reason.

Lucina catches her breath again. “Yes.” She steps back, nearly teetering like she's forgotten her balance all of her sudden. “I saw the profile my father and Kjelle compiled on you a year ago when they were recruiting new graduates from the top potato research universities.”

“So, you read through my achievements and felt intrigued by my intellectual ideas and accomplishments?”

Lucina flushes. “Not exactly. I caught a look at your picture, and ran down to the testing room where they make all applicants go through some hypothetical scenarios.”

Severa remembers that. She drew 'What if your experiment exploded?' Apparently, having common sense to put out the fire or call the fire department was heads above everyone else's answers.

"Glad it was my intelligence and magnetic personality that attracted you to me," Severa scowls. 

Lucina gazes at her. "I do find you charming, though I'm not quite sure why."

Thanks.

"I just feel drawn to you in a way that I haven't felt towards anybody." She glances down briefly before touching Severa's arm shyly. "If that's what you want too."

"Well, I—" Severa frowns. There is a third thing she meant to ask Lucina, but she can't remember what. "—there's something I need to know—"

The speakers come alive with the sounds of brass banging against brass like a drunken percussionist got ahold of a microphone, and the two researchers cringe and cover their ears. When the cacophony ends, the CEO's voice smoothly emerges. "I will keep on announcing the meeting until everyone has gathered for it."

Damn. Guess her questions have to wait. Severa sighs, “C'mon. We have to attend your father's gong-show.”

Lucina catches Severa's arm as she turns to leave. "Wait, but are we...?"

"Later, Lucina." Whatever they may be, they are going to be janitors for certain if they're late.

They make it in within seconds of Chrom ringing his newly casted gongs. “Let's give thanks to our lead developer's father who sent us this gift—” he mutters under his breath, “—after several months of daily requests from me—in order to commemorate the launch of the prophesied potato prodigy that has been foretold in the land's history and ancestry!” He gestures to Morgan beside him who waves. “Or so, my niece has gathered from the research she did in Robin's old lab.”

Morgan stands up. “From what I've learned going through my father's old notes, there is a predicted potato prodigy who would bring prosperity to all inhabitants in the lands. This prodigy would advance technology as we know it and commune with the spirital vassals of the potato gods in order to gleam insights that would have the world rejoice in the majestic power of the ordinary garden potato.” She looks at Severa, and Severa feels stomach drop to her stomach. “Given how far she's led us in the last few months in terms of research on the potato battery, which can solve the world problem of inexpensive energy sources, my gut feeling is that the potato prodigy is right here with us!” She points to Severa.

The people in the meeting look behind the sweating researcher before exchanging confused looks with each other.

Morgan clears her throat. “I meant Severa.”

The meeting members go 'Oh!' with realization and politely clap.

Chrom rubs his chin. “Given this rather mystical prediction, how have you fared in terms of your research, Severa? Do you feel like you've used your time wisely to advanced your research and contributed to the position you were promoted into?”

No. Absolutely not. “I was working on...” Severa glances at Robin on her belt. “...on the idea of continuing the idea of potato transportation that Robin Grimm had been working on—” Severa hears a muffled 'No!' from her potato pouch. She chooses to ignore it. “—but I need access to the basement where the accident happened 12 years ago in order to gather clues on how to crack this mystery.”

Chrom leans forwards. “What's holding you back?”

“Ghosts.” She clears her throat. "In the main building. They're kind of blocking the stairwell."

“Ah.” He waves his hand. “Well, your new project before continuing on the old one is figure out how to get rid of them them. We’ll need to get you a certified shaman for the exorcism as soon as possible.”

Severa arches an eyebrow. "Yeah, sure." How the heck would they find one in the middle of the potato fields? 

After the meeting, Severa heads to her lab, which has become rather crowded with the addition of Morgan, Owain, Lucina, and a trembling Noire dressed up in a ceremonial robe lined with fur and a staff topped with an ornamental sculpture of a potato.

What.

Noire clutches her staff. “I just got told by the CEO that I’m your new shaman.”

Severa slaps her face. “And he gave you a potato shaman costume too. Of course, he did.”

“Ummm....no. I already had one. I just thought I should look the part.” Noire tries to ease her way into the corner without smacking Owain with her staff. She adds defensively at Severa’s incredulous look, “I’m fully certified by the Shaman Licensing Board, even if I had to take the exam twice due to test anxiety.”

Severa says, “I thought your parents were ghost hunters!”

“They dabbled in shamanism here and there, and minored in exorcisms and curses.” 

Severa stares. She has to sit down. She collapses onto her cot, and Morgan grins and slips over to her side immediately. Lucina’s jaw tenses so hard, it could crack walnuts before she marches over and plants herself on Severa’s lap. Morgan glares at her cousin and attempts to huddle under Severa’s chin like a large cat.

Severa tries to shove both of them off, but ends up toppling over with the two women on top of her. 

Owain averts his eyes. “Severa, as much fun as my sister and cousin are having on you, we have work to do.” 

Everyone except Severa stares blankly at him. He sighs and leaps back into a dramatic pose, banging his hip against the table and cursing. “Hark! Let us avert our temptations from the flesh at hand and turn our gaze towards nobler goals!”

Noire glances between all of them nervously. “R-right. You needed to talk to the spirits?”

Half an hour later of walking, they are all staring down into the darkness of the haunted stairwell, warmth air drifting past them like the breath of a sighing colossus. Noire shakes her staff twice at the stairs. When nothing happens, she shrugs. "Well, I tried my best." 

Severa rubs the bridge of her nose. "Can't you commune with the spirits here or something?"

Noire frowns and raises her arms above her, closing her eyes. After a minute of silence, she says, "Something old and angry is haunting these steps."

Severa could have told her that. 

Noire continues, "But it doesn't belong in this world. It was summoned here years ago, and is furious. It demands appeasement. It demands a shrine dedicated to it."

Owain is wide-eyed. "Who is it?"

Noire whirls around at them, eyes bulging like a terrified horse. Her voice comes out in a hoarse whisper. "The potato god!"

...

What.

Morgan slaps a hand to her face. "Axomamatil!"

"Yes." Noire jangles her staff. "He wants to be recognized for being pulled out of his home realm, and wants a shrine dedicated to him so that others may know his power."

Severa snarls, "A shrine? Where are we going to get one?"

Noire shakes her head. "The potato god does not care, as long as he gets one to fit a potato of royal prowess by tomorrow. He also wants a blood sacrifice to be done to the shrine to acknowledge his strength. Find the comeliest potato you can to give his potato highness, and he'll remove the darkness from the staircase."

"O...kay." Severa rubs her temples. "Does everyone want to call it a night and come back tomorrow with a shrine?"

Morgan throws her hand up. "Oh! I'll make one for you, Severa." She bats her eyelashes. "I'll make you one real good."

Lucina clears her throat, cheeks nearly purple. "I believe that I have the material to make one of a higher quality."

"Excuse me, Lucina, but I think Severa wants to put her potato sacrifice in my shrine first."

"What?" Lucina nearly snarls. "I'll have you know that we—"

Severa steps between them. "Both of you make a shrine, and I'll judge it tomorrow." Sheesh. Drama queens.

Morgan grins at Lucina. "Mine's going to be so much nicer."

Lucina's lips are compressed tightly. "We'll see." She turns and stalks from the staircase with Morgan following shortly behind. 

Owain arches an eyebrow after them. "I'll go find a sacrificial knife for you." He exits, leaving only Severa and a frantic Noire who's hurling salt down the staircase like she's a snow machine.

Severa sighs and grabs Noire's arm. "C'mon. Let's get some rest for tomorrow." They head to their room, and Severa still can't get rid of the feeling that she forgot to ask Lucina something important.

Late that night, Noire shakes her awake, and Severa fumbles in the darkness for her flashlight. “The potato god has something urgent to tell you.” She shakes her staff, eyes unseeing. “The talents of the potato prodigy were ascended to new levels of potato research when he entered this word, but he had been looking for kin, a warrior worthy of wielding the mystical power of the potato - a spiritual successor to the royalty of his land. He finds that kin in you, and awards you with the power bestowed upon the named potato princess, including the gift to speak with the potatoes of all qualities. Do you answer his call?”

Potato princess, huh?

Yeah, well. 

The potato god can suck it. Severa’s going back to sleep.

When Severa wakes up in the morning, Noire stares at her wide-eyed and shakes as she prays frantically while wearing wreaths of sage. After getting breakfast and tearing Noire from a startled Yarne who cries when the shaman starts predicting tales of tasty doom upon him, they make it to the staircase where the rest of the group wait with five minutes to spare. Owain hands her a tiny silver knife that looks like he stole it from a dollhouse and a shapely potato while the two female cousins scowl at each other.

Morgan beams at an approaching Severa and places something that looks like a tiny marionette stage inside a cardboard box near the staircase. Lucina glares at her cousin and puts down a tiny throne carved out of wood and decorated with velvet red curtains, mounted atop a bamboo platform. Hers is slightly bigger than Morgan’s.

Severa holds the potato, resisting the urge to roll her eyes as Noire hands her a script scribbled on a notebook page. “In the name of Axomamatil, the greatest of vegetable gods, we sacrifice this tuber so that all those witnessing understand that he demands a great offering for his blessings.” She cuts into the potato with the knife, and she swears she hears a tiny scream.

Severa stares at the potato in her hand.

Morgan nudges her. “Hurry up and pick a shrine!”

Severa shakes her head and approaches the side-by-side container. She glances from the cardboard box to the elegantly carved throne before turning around to look at a hopeful Morgan and a glaring Lucina.

Love interest with the jealous streak as wide as Inigo’s ego wins. Severa tucks the potato sacrifice into the wooden throne, and watches Morgan’s expression crumble. Gods. She’s considering cutting the potato in half if not for the whimpers she hears from it.

Owain can’t stand his sister’s disappointment either. He reaches into his pocket and stuffs something into the cardboard box. “Here. So, you can have something to offer to the potato god as well.”

Morgan’s voice is hollow. “That’s a rock.”

“A potato-shaped rock!” Owain argues, “Axomamatil probably can’t tell the difference!”

Noire stamps her staff. “Silence! The potato god will now make its judgment on your offerings!” She closes her eyes and her clothes billow behind her as if caught in the draft of a unnatural wind. The stairs behind her creak and rumble ominously and the walls around them almost seem to bulge like a tumorous growth. At last, Noire opens her eyes and nods. “The potato god says both offerings are acceptable and delicious.”

Severa stares at the tiny shrines and realizes the potato god is full of crap.

She opens the staircase door and shines her flashlight down the centre gap. To her relief, she sees a floor at the bottom. “Guess he’s as good as his word at least,” she mutters. "Why did he want a shrine in the first place again?"

Noire chews her lip. "Well, he's actually really insecure and demanding from what I picked up." She whispers, "But don't tell him I told you that."

Severa sighs, "Great. Mission accomplished. Let's report back to the CEO."

Owain peers down the staircase and starts to walk down it. "I'm going to get to the bottom of what happened with my dad."

Morgan shakes her head. "You have to wait for uncle's permission." Her phone vibrates, and she picks it up. Her eyes widen. "Mom's just arrived at the facility." Her face goes pale as she skims the message her mother sent her. After tucking the phone back into her pocket with shaking hands, she sprint after her brother. "I changed my mind! Uncle can wait!"

Severa looks at Noire who shakes her head. "My contract clearly states one exorcism, and was checked by the highest quality shaman lawyers." She turns to leave before hesitating and tucking a charm into Severa's hands. "Good luck."

"Fine. I'll go get those two idiots myself." Severa takes a step down when she feels a warm hand slip into her own.

Lucina nods, not quite looking at her with her flushed face. "Don't forget me." She glances over at the shrines. "Thank you. For choosing mine."

Severa coughs. "Yours was nicer anyway." And plus, holding Lucina's hand is making Severa's head spin. Or maybe it was the whimpering from the enshrined potato nearby. "Wait, I remember what I wanted to ask you. I heard you were there when the experiment went wrong. What happened? And why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

Lucina walks ahead, drawing Severa down towards her answer in the remains of Robin's basement. Her eyes glint with something that doesn't seem like her. "I didn't know if you'd believe me. No one did." She smiles, and Severa knows how sharp her teeth look for the first time. "The short answer is that my uncle was more successful than he thought. He did create a portal to summon something, and he took its place instead."


	7. Viazi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang make it to the basement of Robin's lab, and Severa pays a price to get rid of the ghosts and the potato god.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Darker and more lore-y than other chapters.

Robin almost sounds petulant. “I told you I wasn’t dead.”

Severa argues, “Okay, you never flat out said that you were alive.” She whirls on Lucina. “And you didn't mention you were there the first time I asked you.”

Lucina stares straight ahead. “It's not something I tell everyone, especially after eight years of therapy trying to convince me I saw otherwise.” 

Wow.

Dark.

Severa clears her throat as they descend down the stairs. She's not sure what to say to that, and she catches Lucina glancing at the device, as if wary to believe her prototype design allowed a potato to become a conduit to speak with her uncle in another world. “So, what did you see happen, Lucina?” 

Robin answers, “I turned on the machine, noticed light coming out of it, turned, and pushed Chrom out since he was closest to the door. Before I could do the same for Lucina, the machine exploded. I felt agony—heat like it was melting the clothes off of my back before being pulled through a narrow tunnel. And then I was this realm in the place of Axomamatil.”

Severa scowls, “Thank you, _Lucina_.” Wait, does that mean that Robin's the potato god in his world?

“Oh.” Robin coughs. “Go on. Tell her what happened.”

Lucina goes quiet, and all that's heard is the clatter of their footsteps down an empty stairwell. She tightens her grip on Severa's hand. “Uncle Robin isn't wrong, but he didn't see everything. There was a bright light that came from the machine, but the tome he used sputtered and rose into the air, crackling with energy like purple lightning. Just being near it felt wrong, like peeking into a family scene that you knew you shouldn't see.

"I stared at the book until one of the tines of energy hit me, and I was unconscious. The next thing, I knew I woke up in the rubble outside with my father.” 

"Were you okay?" Severa lets out a breath when Lucina nods. “And was that the...uh...evil tome that Robin used to summon the potato god?”

“The very same. And that it was accidental. 'Potato god' and 'potatoes" were very close in the summoning codex of the book. The book was also written in ancient Plegian, by the way,” Robin elaborates. “I found it in the basement, tucked away in a gray lockbox that looked like it had been rusted for ages. I assumed it was a keepsake from when Grim Leel used to own the building.”

Severa stops, and lets go of Lucina who continues forward. “Wait, so you used an evil book that was formerly and possibly owned by your rival corporation? That sounds like a trap to me.”

“In retrospect, it may have been left behind as sabotage, but the strange thing was the lockbox popped open just at my touch, and I felt drawn to the book, like it was singing to something inside of me.” Robin goes quiet. “For what is obviously my detriment, I had to discover what secrets were inside. For science.”

Science. Severa's where she is now because of it, though considering she was a science major, that's not surprising.

She shakes her head, hand holding Robin up like a talisman to her chest. “What compelled you to open a dangerous door for scientific discovery instead of choosing to be safe with your family?”

“Foolishness. Curiosity. I'm not sure.” Robin muses, “Why do things that matter the most never end up being the things we chose?”

Severa makes a sound in her throat and looks at Lucina, who waits for her a little ways down. She feels her mouth go dry at the soft expression on her face, and takes a step towards her. “I don't think it's never.” 

Lucina's expression shifts to relief when Severa reaches her. She shyly slips her hand into Severa's again. "We've nearly caught up at the bottom with the others. Are you ready?"

A thought occurs to Severa as they near the bottom of the steps. "Wait, what happened to the book? Is it still in the basement, doing its evil floating thing?"

Lucina doesn't answer. The pair walk down around rubble to the others who gape at a glowing white seal reaching from ceiling to floor across the former laboratory's doors. The runes on the seal shift like a living creature, made of intricate lines resembling moving figures, and their light flicker like pale flames. 

Lucina frowns. "I forgot about this. We didn't include it in our reports, because no one would believe us. The staircases also quickly became inaccessible after Robin disappeared."

Morgan reaches out a hand. The light snaps at her, and the researcher yanks back her arm. "Okay. So, mysterious glowing seal is not friendly. I saw we show our dominance and burn it down."

Severa snaps, "No fires!"

A series of frantic thumps echo on the stairs behind them. They turn to see Noire still in her ceremonial robe flying down the steps.

Severa's eyebrows shoot up. “Why did you come back?”

Noire heaves and straightens up. “I sensed that you would also need a translator to hear the potato god's words.” She grimaces. “And I may have ran into Morgan's and Owain's mother out there looking for her. She's...she's mad.”

Morgan pales. She tentatively pulls out her phone and turns it off. In the distance, Severa swears she hears a faint roar like a she-bear charging a trespasser. 

Noire stares at the seal. She studies the floating runes. “I believe only those linked with the potato god's powers can activate this lock.”

Owain asks, “How do you know? Can you read it?”

Noire shrugs. “Shamanic intuition.” 

Which means Noire has no idea. Severa scowls, "So, who would have the potato god's powers?"

Everyone stares at her.

"What?"

Morgan points out. "You're the prophesied potato prodigy."

Noire whispers, "And the potato princess. You just need to transform to reach your potato potential."

Severa protests as Owain and Morgan push her towards the runes. She glares at the glowing seal before reluctantly reaching out and placing a hand on the light. A red line from her palm arches around to fill in the lines of the rune, casting it in an eerie, scarlet hue like a brand of blood. “It's still not opening.” She spots a place further along in the etchings that looks like a hand could be put there. “I think it needs someone else.”

Noire gnaws at her lip. “Like who?”

Lucina steps up and places her hand on the groove, a lightning-blue light racing from her palm. “Like me,” she says, quietly. 

The blue reaches Severa's red, merging into a dark purple tinged with black that makes the researchers uneasy. The runes glow briefly before the seal dissipates, and all that's left is a broken door that leads to Robin's basement.

They all stare at Lucina before Morgan pipes up. “How did you know to do that?”

Lucina straightens up, something changed about her demeanour. She opens her eyes, and in her left one, a brand twinkles like molten silver in the shape of a potato. “I'm the prodigy, not Severa.”

Everyone stares at Lucina. Lucina stares back. In retrospect, given her long list of accomplishments over her life in potato research, that seems rather obvious.

Severa gestures to the door. “Lead the way...uh...potato prodigy.” This has to be the weirdest thing she'll encounter today, right?

Right?

Owain's expression is strained, and it's only when Lucina crosses the threshold that he runs off, giggling madly. Severa goes after him, hissing. “Did you lose your marbles?

Owain snorts and jams his fist in his mouth. His words come out muffled. “Sorry, I couldn't take Lucina's potato eye seriously.” 

“Yeah, well, some are treating this maturely like the adults we are.” She thinks of Lucina's potato mark twinkling, and stifles a giggle. “C'mon. Everyone else is already in there.”

Owain and Severa apparently do not need to hurry. When they make it past the door, they spot the dusty remains of a lab with a steel machine sitting in the middle of it that is slightly taller and wider than an average man, as if it is meant for someone to go through. On the far side is a table with a desktop from ten years ago, ugly and boxy in its design, a line of beakers and burners on a table on one side while some cabinets side on the opposite wall. Oh, and beside the machine is a floating book, wrapped in an ominous purple glow and the whispers of sinister chanting, and a portal large enough for someone to step through made of an eerie glowing light.

Severa scowls. "Hey, Robin. I think we found your tome and what sucked you in."

Robin replies. "Okay. Don't touch either of those."

...really.

Robin continues, "I summoned Axomamatil through the incantations in the book. I would suspect that in order to get rid of the ghosts, we would also need to remove him and the tome from this world."

Owain scratches his nape. "So, uh...how we do that?"

"I know! I'll ask the potato god." Noire closes her eyes and presses her hands together in a prayer. “He says to give his blessings for the potato prodigy and for the potato princess to court each other. He expects many tiny tubers by next spring.”

Severa hisses. "How about we just take it down?"

Lucina steps forward towards the centre of the room, having been unusually quiet. "Is there a way to take it without being harmed? And what is that portal behind it?"

Robin says, quietly, “This is called the Gate of the Gods - a gateway to the land of the gods. It requires a sacrifice to open it and to close it.”

Severa asks, “What happens to those that stepped through? What happened to you?” Also, what sacrifice?

“The tome I used said that worthy mortals who cross over become immortal and are able to live in the land of the gods. The rest don’t survive stepping through the threshold.”

Severa makes a note to herself to not try to become immortal. She shakes her head to clear her foolish thoughts and moves towards the book. "Okay, let's just—"

The room shakes, bits of the ceiling falling down as Severa's hair blows back as if a wind has picked up. It quickly turns into an unnatural hurricane as gusts from the book smash the team to the pillars and the walls of the room. Outside the room comes screams and murmurs in an ancient dark language like the kind Severa heard when she first went down the stairs.

Severa shouts, “Why are all the ghosts returning?”

Noire glances over to her from the pillar she’s clinging on. “Potato god says he realizes you tricked him with a rock.”

Severa glares at Owain on her other side, who ducks under a piece of flying debris. He says, “I’m surprised it noticed.”

Robin crackles from her belt. “Severa, there's a wand in my cabinet I found long ago. You can use it to transform into the potato princess!”

Yeah, no.

“Why not?” Robin howls. “You could face the potato god with that power!” A pause. "The evil one," he amends.

Severa pulls up the device and stares at it. “Can you promise me that I won't transform into a giant potato if I do?”

Robin hesitates. "I'm certain that you would retain all of your human intelligence in any case."

Great. Well, Severa doesn't have a better plan. She edges her way along the walls as the winds buffet the others who duck behind rubble and pillars. At the side of a room, the doors of an old wooden cabinet bang wildly. Severa swears as it smashes into her arm before she can grab the handle and yanks it open. Inside is a slender wand topped with a tiny, purple potato. 

Robin shouts. "Grab it, and transform! I'll imbue it with my powers as the potato god over here!"

Severa stares at it. She's reconsidering.

"SEVERA!"

"Fine!" Severa rips the wand from the cabinet. The carved wood is warm under her hand. "Potato power!" She thrust the wand upwards. Nothing happens. She feels like a moron caught in a windstorm holding a stick with a potato on it.

"Oh. Maybe you don't transform." Robin muses. "Try using the wand against the winds." 

Severa glares at the device. She slashes the wand like a sword, and the gusts break as if she had just sliced through them. Startled, she bolts through the gap before the gusts double in force, pinning the others against the walls. They gasp and struggle to breath while only Lucina is making any headway against the wind, crawling stubbornly towards the centre, despite being blown to the side.

Severa gazes at the floating book coated in an ominous purple glow before plucking it out of the air and waiting for an otherworldly lightning bolt to smite her on the spot. Nothing happens to her, but the wind screams in the room and Severa spots Lucina flinch, her mouth twisted in a cry lost to the storm's howls. Lucina drops her forehead to the floor, and her body shakes as something that resembles a root pushes through her collarbone through flesh and cloth, spilling blood across the floor.

Severa shouts at her device. Her voice is an octave higher. "There are things growing out of Lucina! They look like potato sprouts!"

Robins hollers, "The potato god marked her as his champion when he was summoned her. He's claiming the seeds he planted inside of her and causing them to grow!"

"Why?"

"He's petty and might still be mad about being deceived. You need to step through the gate with the book. It’s the only way to banish Axomamatil back to his realm and reverse his effects.”

Severa nods. Right, step through. 

She hurls the tome into the portal only for it to boomerang back into her arms. “The stupid book returned!”

”You have to follow the old rituals! A champion needs to carry it through, otherwise it’ll remain here since Axomamatil wants to stay!”

Severa glances at the blue light in front of her and back at Lucina at the side, howling and bent over as the strange sprouts burst through her skin and clothes, their tips gleaming with blood. “A champion, huh?” She asks quietly, “Will I die?”

Robin goes silent. “I don’t know.”

She looks back at Lucina who begins crawling towards her, reaching out a hand as if begging Severa not to go. The sprouts twist into ugly fingers of pink and purple, tinged with a sickly yellow.

Severa turns back to the gate. She speaks to Robin beside her. "I won't make the same mistake you did."

Robin assents with a gentle murmur. "Choosing what matters the most?"

Severa steps through with the book, and the portal closes behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter!


	8. Patata

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An epilogue to Severa disappearing into the portal. Lucina formulates a plan to bring her back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic has evolved so much since I wrote it in its early crack stages back in the summer of 2017. I just never thought I would seriously finish it, but here we are. Thank you for everyone who came along this zany adventure with me.
> 
> This chapter's tone is more serious than the rest.

Lucina wakes up on her desk, papers and pens flying as she jerks up. She blinks at the pink fingers of dawn probing her face through the windows and sighs, burying her cheek in the palm of her hand. On her desk sit mugs with coffee rings at varying levels, hugging tightly together on abandoned drawings. She stares at the design of her plan in front of her. It's as good as it will get, and Lucina needs to present the project proposal today.

Lucina grabs her papers and heads down to the mail room where she finds the packages her Aunt Emmeryn sent when Lucina spoke to her about her project.

Aunt Emmeryn ships her several family heirlooms—a book specializing in the communion with gods and a sword that can slice a doorway into other worlds. 

Lucina calls her aunt. “If we have a sword that can open inter-dimensional portals, why didn't you mention it?”

“No one had ever asked for it. Also, sentimental reasons.” Emmeryn sniffs. “It belonged to my grandmother.”

After a few minutes, Lucina bids goodbye to her aunt and heads up to the meeting, carting the Falchion, the Book of Naga, and her proposal. She kicks open the doors to the massive boardroom, and, inside, a tired-looking Chrom, Maribelle, Brady, and Owain wait with slumped shoulders. Morgan waves to Lucina and immediately cringes when a furious Lissa wheels on her, evidentally having not forgiven her daughter for running away if the giant toddler leash Morgan wears is any indication. 

Chrom nods and seats himself with everyone else following suit. The atmosphere at the meetings and, consequently, the organization, have become sober, serious as if everyone woke up from a strange and hilarious dream. “What have you brought for us this time, Lucina?”

Lucina takes a breath and reaches into her pocket to pull out a device similar to the prototype she designed for Severa. “I propose a plan to retrieve valuable company employees—no, rather, friends and family—open up new trading grounds, and ensure the continuation of innovative inventions for decades.” She lays down Naga's book, the Falchion, and the device. She pushes her proposal towards them. “We need to open another portal to the land of the gods.” 

Maribelle frowns. “You saw how well that went last time Robin did that.”

Lucina waits. “How badly did our profits suffer?”

Maribelle turns pink. “Well, actually, we saw the most profitable decade we've ever seen in company history, although we had a high turnover rate, what with employees going missing and whatnot.” 

Lucina nods. “I've asked Morgan to investigate why we saw the highest amounts of new inventions that we ever had when Uncle Robin disappeared.” She glances at Morgan, who smiles. They're still family, even if they were interested in the same person. Although, since said person vanished, it's a rather moot point.

Morgan turns to the others. “I did more research into old Axomamatil, and apparently, he was also the god of vengeance and insanity. A lot of his worshippers would wish his presence onto their enemies, since merely being around him was said to induce the same symptoms as solanine poisoning including—” She lifts her fingers and begin ticking them off. “—nightmares, headaches, hallucinations, fever, dilated pupils, and loss of sensation.” 

Brady blanches. “Solanine like from rotten potato fumes?”

Morgan nods. “Seeing that he liked to haunt that one staircase leading to Dad's lab, it would make sense that the people closest to him would experience the strongest symptoms.”

Everyone looks at Lucina, who shifts. “I...felt fine.” 

Morgan flips through Robin's research notes. “That might have been due to the magical protection of your prodigy state. Axomamatil is known for being indulgent with those he champions.” 

Lucina rubs at her collarbone where a potato sprout had broken through only weeks previously. “We can safely say I'm not in his favour anymore.” Luckily, the sprouts had fallen off shortly after Severa took the tome out of this world. And herself with it. 

Brady lays a hand on her shoulder, concern clear on his face. “You okay, Sis?”

Lucina glances at her fingers. “I will be once we get Robin and Severa back.”

Owain flicks his eyes towards her. “But how do you know that she's alive?”

Lucina's hands clench. 

“Hey!” Morgan waves her arms, and everyone turns back to her. “As I was saying, Axomamatil is the god of insanity, but he was also the god of inspiration or creativity. Apparently, there's a thin line between having ideas and being insane.”

Chrom looks thoughtful. “You think having Axomamatil here led to the prolific period we just had? And that bridging a gap with him would help?”

A throat clears near Morgan, and everyone turns to Lissa. “I don't know if meeting that gap would help anyone. As you all know, it took my husband from this world.” She gazes at her niece. “Is this really what you think you should do?”

Lucina is silent before she pulls out a sheet of paper and places it out the table. On it is a series of advanced equations and drawings that she jabs at. “Robin distinctly said that mortals who cross over if they're—” Lucina swallows. “—if they're found worthy would ascend into immortality. My plan is not to ask Axomamatil, but Robin and Severa themselves.” She turns to her brother. “You asked me how do I know she survived? This is my answer.” 

Brady blinks. “You think Severa ascended to potato godhood?”

Lucina stares at the diagrams. “She has to.” She doesn't want to consider the other possibility. “My plan is to reopen the door to the potato realm and rescue Severa but also Robin Grimm. Secondary goals include establishing diplomatic relationships with the potato gods, offering worship and praise in lieu of abundance in our future harvests and inspiration for new potato inventions.

“As you all know, it is with no small relief that Laurent and his team recently managed to devise a potato peeler that would put the Grim Peel to shame. The only question is how can the company keep innovating at the rate it is known for without help, considering the speed of its rival corporation's growth? And if they overtake us, what fate would befall us?”

Everyone goes silent. 

Chrom considers her. “You may not be able to come back. Is your goal worth the risk?”

Lucina meets his gaze. “Any goal worth achieving involves an element of risk. Thoughtless action can reap terrible consequences, but thoughtless inaction can equally be as destructive in wasting opportunities. Given the extensive body of research I've done on this proposal, I have already laid out all possible resources we can use to ensure success of this plan as well as planned actions for any contingencies that may arise.” She bows her head slightly. “It's up to you, Father, if you think bringing back Robin and Severa is worth the danger. You know my answer.”

“Well said.” Chrom nods. “I'll contact the head of our newly formed Shaman department to assist you.”

Lucina says quietly, “Thank you.” 

Her father claps her on the shoulder and looks over at Maribelle, who clears her throat. She frowns slightly and slides over to touch Lucina's arm on her other side. “Well, this all seems a bit much to retrieve a software developer hooligan, but I'll help you find funding for your project.” Her shoulders relax. “And dear, do tell her how you feel when you find her. It's not everyday that a girl will exile herself to another dimension for you.” 

Lissa touches her other arm. She yanks her niece down into a fierce hug. “I still think you're being an idiot, but if there's anyone who can find my dummy of a husband and bring him back. It's you. Be careful, Lucina. I don't want to lose any more family.” 

Lucina hugs her aunt back. “You won't.” She lets go and straightens up. “How quickly can we assemble a team?”

By tomorrow, Lucina heads a small group into the basement where Robin and Severa disappeared from the world. Morgan and Owain join her from the original research team as they pour over their father's books for clues. Lissa stands behind them, holding Morgan's leash while yawning at the early morning time. On the far side of the room, the new Shaman department is performing an intricate ritual to contact the other world.

Noire mutters incantation and dances around a concrete circle drawn in chalk on the ground. Her assistant Yarne looks uneasy as he hops from foot to foot in a mimic of Noire's movements on the other side of the circle. They stop once the lines below them glow, and Noire pulls out an ouija board out of a nearby bag. 

Lucina greets them both. “Good morning. What are you working on right now?"

Yarne tugs at his ceremonial headdress, which includes rabbit ears for some reason. "Contacting Severa and Robin Grimm to see if they're still alive." Noire jabs him. "Ow! I mean, opening a connection to the gods of the realm."

Noire offers a prayer and burns sage before placing the ouija board in the centre of the circle and putting her hand on top of the planchette. "Severa, this is Noire, your friend. Can you hear me?"

Lucina holds her breath and stares at the wooden piece, which doesn't move. She feels something sink inside of her while Noire tries again. "Severa, do you hear me? Yes or no? Do you remember me?" Her voice goes small.

The planchette shifts and lifts from the board. It moves in fits towards 'YES' inscribed on the board. Noire looks stunned before her eyes light up. She asks the ouija board, “Yarne is here too. Do you remember him? Can you spell his name?”

The planchette spells out W-I-M-P.

Yarne hollers, “Hey!”

Noire meets Lucina's gaze and nods. “it's definitely her.” She looks like she's about to cry and offers the piece towards Lucina.

Lucina's fingers touch down on the planchette. They shake. “Severa, this is is me. I'm safe with no potato sprouts growing out of me.” She swallows, her vision starting to blur as she blinks rapidly. “We'll get you back, okay? You and Robin.”

The planchette doesn't move for a few moments before it spells out S-O-O-N. The light underneath the piece winks out, and it drops to the ground with a clatter. 

Noire shakes her head. "The circle couldn't sustain the amount of energy needed to talk to her across dimensions."

Lucina squeezes Noire's shoulder. "You did the best you could. We've confirmed that she's still alive, and I'll do the rest." She moves from the pair to a table on the centre where the Falchion lies, and Morgan's chanting something from the Book of Naga that makes the sword glow.

Owain glances at her and draws her into a hug. "We're just enchanting it for you, cousin." He slips Lucina's copy of the device into her pocket. "For you to keep connection with us here." He also pulls out a mask in the shape of a butterfly. "Gerome from Prototypes sends his regards and this. In case you need to disguise yourself over there."

Lucina smiles and takes the mask, the cool material underneath her fingers reassuring. "Thank you. For everything."

Owain grins before his eyes widen at something over Lucina's shoulder. Lucina turns and sees a two people arriving—a tall, straight-backed woman who looks like a copy of Severa and a stoic man with wild, short hair. "I think you're meeting someone's parents pretty soon."

Severa's mother spots Lucina and strides over, her husband in tow. Her face is drawn with grief, but something burns in her eyes. "My name is Cordelia, and this is Lon'qu. We came when we heard from your father that you plan to find our missing daughter. He filled us in on your proposal."

Lucina's throat tightens. "It's my fault that she went missing, so I will do everything in my power to return her to you."

Lon'qu studies Lucina quietly before huffing slightly and walking away. Lucina's bewildered at his departure while Cordelia smile and shakes her head. "He approves of you, but he's not the kind of man to say so." 

She produces a silver band from her pocket that glints from the white stones on top. "We came to wish you luck and see you off." She holds it out to Lucina who stares before sticking out her hand. Cordelia slides onto Lucina's right ring finger, and holds her hand, her palms warm and comforting. “A token from us for good luck and remembrance if....if ascending to godhood makes her forget us.” She swallows. "Please tell her we love her, no matter who she becomes."

Lucina's struck for words. She clears her throat. "I will bring her back, so you may tell her yourself." 

Cordelia smiles. She looks a little sad. "We'll wait for everyone's return."

Lucina bids farewell to her before taking her place at the centre of Robin's old lab. She pulls the Falchion from the table when Morgan stops chanting and slices at the air, cleaving light that opens into a wound that pulses blue light like she's staring to a sky flickering across the colour spectrum. She lets out a small sigh of relief. "It works." 

There's a clatter of steps, and Lucina glances over to the stairs. Her mother, brother, and father arrive who run up to her and bury her in their hugs, shouting incoherently. After Brady pulls off a weeping Maribelle off of Lucina, Chrom places his hands on his daughter's shoulders and searches her face. "Your number one priority is to find them and come back alive." He gazes fondly at the Falchion before meeting his daughter's eyes "I would tell you no heroics, but it's in your blood. And if you become immortal, I reserve the right to brag that my daughter is a goddess."

Lucina smiles and hugs him once more, feeling the warmth and strength of his hold around her like when she used to run into his arms as a child. "Of course, Father."

When her family shuffles off to the side, Lucina slides the Falchion back into the sheath at her hip, and looks around the room, meeting everyone's gaze. The portal glitters before her, and Lucina takes a breath. She pats Falchion and a copy of Severa's device in her pocket before slipping the butterfly mask onto her face. A reddish wisp flickers ahead of her, and Lucina realizes that the remnants of Severa's path is still visible and something lightens in her chest. She'll follow it. She'll bring everyone back.

Lucina steps through and follows Severa's trail into the light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for taking the time to read and comment on my first crackfic. About potatoes. And ghosts. I loved that some of you were unable to write a serious review, and the spirit of the potato crackfic is catching :)


End file.
